This text examines the great variey of mental health disorders that can affect women during pregnancy and after giving birth. Issues such as infertility and child abuse are covered and case descriptions and personal accounts are also provided.

Whatever reproductive choices women make--whether they opt to end a pregnancy through abortion or continue to term and give birth--they are considered to be at risk of suffering serious mental health problems. According to opponents of abortion in the United States, potential injury to women is a major reason why people should consider abortion a problem. On the other hand, becoming a mother can also be considered a big risk. This fine, well-balanced book is about how people represent the results of reproductive choices. It examines how and why pregnancy and its various outcomes have come to be discussed this way. The author's interest in the medicalization of reproduction--its representation as a mental health problem--first arose in relation to abortion. There is a very clear contrast between the construction of women who have abortions, implied by moralized argument against abortion, and the construction that results when the case against abortion focuses on its effects on women's mental health. Lee argues that claims that connect abortion with mental illness have been limited in their influence, but this is not to suggest that they have not become a focus for discussion and have had no impact. The limits to such claims about abortion do not, by any means, suggest limits to the process of the medicalization of pregnancy more broadly, that is, a process of demedicalization. The final theme of Ellie Lee's book is the selective medicalization of reproduction. Centering on the claim that abortion can create a post abortion syndrome, the author examines the "medicalization" of the abortion problem on both sides of the Atlantic. Lee points to contrasts in legal and medical dimensions of the abortion issue that make for some important differences, but argues that in both the United States and Great Britain, the post-abortion-syndrome claim constitutes an example of the limits to medicalization and the return to the theme of motherhood as a psychological ordeal. Lee makes the case for looking to the social dimensions of mental health problems to account for and understand debates about what makes women ill. Ellie Lee is research fellow in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Southampton, Highfield, United Kingdom.

Depression is a widespread condition affecting approximately 7.5 million parents in the U.S. each year and may be putting at least 15 million children at risk for adverse health outcomes. Based on evidentiary studies, major depression in either parent can interfere with parenting quality and increase the risk of children developing mental, behavioral and social problems. Depression in Parents, Parenting, and Children highlights disparities in the prevalence, identification, treatment, and prevention of parental depression among different sociodemographic populations. It also outlines strategies for effective intervention and identifies the need for a more interdisciplinary approach that takes biological, psychological, behavioral, interpersonal, and social contexts into consideration. A major challenge to the effective management of parental depression is developing a treatment and prevention strategy that can be introduced within a two-generation framework, conducive for parents and their children. Thus far, both the federal and state response to the problem has been fragmented, poorly funded, and lacking proper oversight. This study examines options for widespread implementation of best practices as well as strategies that can be effective in diverse service settings for diverse populations of children and their families. The delivery of adequate screening and successful detection and treatment of a depressive illness and prevention of its effects on parenting and the health of children is a formidable challenge to modern health care systems. This study offers seven solid recommendations designed to increase awareness about and remove barriers to care for both the depressed adult and prevention of effects in the child. The report will be of particular interest to federal health officers, mental and behavioral health providers in diverse parts of health care delivery systems, health policy staff, state legislators, and the general public.

This text examines the great variey of mental health disorders that can affect women during pregnancy and after giving birth. Issues such as infertility and child abuse are covered and case descriptions and personal accounts are also provided.

'Open, honest, straight talking on mental health and motherhood.' - Tik Tok's Dr Julie 'I absolutely love it - it doesn't matter who you are, what you've been through and how much you've changed - there is always room for growth'. - Ant Middleton 'This book will become your bible.' - Gaby Roslin, Virgin Radio In GROW, Sunday Times bestselling author Frankie Bridge opens up about her journey with her maternal mental health. Part narrative exploration, part first aid manual for mothers this book will discuss the hidden growing pains which take place when you become a parent. Its chapters cover the HOW TOs, WHAT IFs?, WILL Is? and WHY DOs? anxious questions all mothers ask themselves when they believe they are doing it wrong whilst also offering a brutally honest account of how hard it can be to grow a baby and raise a child whilst you are still growing into yourself. The book will combine Frankie's mental health journey into motherhood with the notes of psychologist, Maleha Khan, who will unpack the problems she experienced as she became a mother. It will also include additional guidance and parental advice from the UK's leading paediatrician Dr Ed Abrahamson. Fans of OPEN: 'Brave and beautiful... a first aid manual for your mind.' - Adam Kay, bestselling author of This is Going To Hurt 'Very readable. Very relatable. Intensely moving but also full of practical advice.' - Alastair Campbell

Postnatal Depression and Maternal Mental Health: A handbook for frontline caregivers working with women with perinatal mental health difficulties is an accessible handbook that is intended to support midwives, health visitors, community workers and frontline healthcare providers in their detection and assessment of postnatal depression and maternal mental health. Midwives, health visitors, community workers and frontline healthcare providers for pregnant women, and mothers and babies in the first postnatal year, require better information on the kinds of help that women need, and resources they can use to support discussions about difficult and complex feelings. It will provide readers with a good understanding of postnatal depression and the range of perinatal mental health difficulties they may come across in universal services for mental illness in pregnant and postnatal women. The handbook will support them in their detection and assessment of these difficulties in the women on their caseload. Postnatal Depression and Maternal Mental Health will enable you to: Identify and assess postnatal depression in mothers Facilitate sensitive conversations about mental health with more confidence Provide early support to both mother and baby to reduce the need for future professional intervention Progress your CPD accreditation.

Despite the importance of regaining social roles during recovery from mental illness, the intersection between motherhood and serious mental illness is often overlooked. This book aims to rectify that neglect. A series of introductory chapters describing current research and services available to mothers with serious mental illness are followed by personal accounts of clients reflecting on their parenting experiences. One goal of the book is to provide clinicians with information that they can use to help patients struggling with questions and barriers in their attempts to parent. The inclusion of personal accounts of mothers on issues such as stigma, fears and discrimination in the context of parenting with a mental illness is intended to promote the message of mental illness recovery to a larger audience as well. Finally, it is hoped that this handbook will help inspire more research on mothers with mental illness and the creation of more services tailored to their needs.