Birth Trauma

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common yet misunderstood complication of childbirth, effecting between 10% - 20% of women who have recently given birth.  This paper employs a
‘problem-centering’ approach that integrates a review of literature from biomedical and social constructivist paradigms with a discourse analysis of popular online news media about PPD. Together these sources demonstrate PPD as a product of competing understandings that situate women’s depression relative to childbirth, and create misunderstandings.  While biomedical science suggests PPD is a confluence of hormonal changes and environmental conditions, social constructivist approaches argue that PPD is a construct of reality that positions women as ‘mad’ because of their biology.  The lack of a clear medical definition of PPD results in normal emotional changes during the postpartum period being understood and stigmatized the same as serious mental illness.  The cultural myth of good mothering leaves little room for emotional
experiences that fall outside of motherhood being understood as a time of joy and contentment; physicians and health care providers (PHCPs) provide treatment to women to enable them to resume this socially constructed mythic role as mother while treatment is often informed by cultural biases and preferences.  The online media discourse reproduces this dominant biomedical understanding of PPD, and reinforces stigma and misunderstanding, while limiting the alternative voices and agency of many women.

Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery: Connecting Communities for Mental Health & Well-Being (AHRC Communities, Cultures, Health & Wellbeing Research Grants, Cross-council Programme). Consortia Bid of 1.5 million (co-investigator and stream lead) from 1/5/2013 (AHRC grant ref. AH/K003364/1).

Violence against women is a globally pervasive issue that can take on multiple forms affecting women regardless of age, class, race/ethnicity, or ability. Within a patriarchal paradigm the subjugation of women is consistent across cultures and is reflected in social structures, including health care facilities and systems. Obstetrical violence is understood to be actions of abuse or disrespect experienced by a women during the prenatal and postnatal periods and is especially prevalent during labour and delivery. During a time of intense vulnerability, women can be subjected to verbal and physical abuse, lack of respect, acts of coercion, gross violations of privacy and the withholding of pain medication, often occurring at the hands of their care providers and these acts can be paralleled with similar experiences of women who have been abused by domestic partners. These practices can then inform a woman’s decision making related to future access to health care services and play a ro...