Earlier this month I received this book review, to add to my site, from a Mum called Anna. She has struggled with PND herself and wanted to let others know that she had found it helpful. Here’s what she has to say about it…
“I found this book really interesting to read, especially as I was expecting it to focus mainly on the mother and her feelings but actually a lot of the book is centred around the society in which we are bringing up children, the enormous expectations placed upon mothers by other people, including government and the implicit messages they send through what seem like supportive schemes such as creating childcare schemes so Mums can go back to work – they negate the fact that raising a child is important work yet are happy to contribute to pay someone who is not the mother to look after the child. A great point that really resonated with me was that mothers are not at all valued by society – despite the fact that motherhood is viewed as the ultimate goal in a woman’s life.
The author spells out exactly what mothers are faced with, something I feel I had just accepted but seeing it written down in black in white (all of the obstacles and lack of support) made me realize that actually I am doing a good job and a very worthwhile job and not to undervalue myself – which was a factor in my low self-esteem.
It is not a book that will help in concrete ways to combat perinatal depression as that is only covered in one chapter but it does really help in the understanding of why women (and men – great that this is covered) who have had peri-natal depression feel as they do and helps us not to blame ourselves.
It also helped me to view myself in a much more positive light in my role as a mother. The other really positive thing is that it is a small book, very handy for popping in your bag and doesn’t seem like a daunting read, very easy to pick up which is what we busy Mums need!”
The book can be bought from Amazon here
I have tried to add lots of different types of resources – online, video, articles, books, organisations and support forums under the section ‘Help with PND’… check it out for more ideas.
Do you have something that’s helped your recovery from PND?
I’d love to hear about it and feature it too, get in touch with me at haveyouseenthatgirl@outlook.com