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Narrating and Disrupting Postnatal Depression

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Paths to Parenthood

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Abstract

If becoming a mother involves a reworking of a woman’s sense of self, then becoming a depressed mother requires double the amount of ‘self-work.’ This chapter explores the accounts of 19 women who identified as having experienced postnatal depression (PND). It examines how the women spoke of early maternal distress and how they related such distress to maternal subjectivities. In particular, it considers the tensions between what could be narrated and what exceeded, or interrupted, narration. The authors locate the accounts within a genre of recovery narratives, suggesting that they allowed women to ‘narrate away’ feelings of maternal inadequacy or impairment. Furthermore, the authors extend their analysis beyond the discursive realm, inferring non-verbal, indeed non-narratable, cadences in the narrative performance. Finally, they reflect on how such cadences might articulate with the heightened relationality of early maternity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Meredith Stone & Renata Kokanović

  2. Hunter New England Local Health District, Tamworth Base Hospital, Tamworth, NSW, Australia

    Meredith Stone

  3. Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI), Monash Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    Renata Kokanović

Authors
  1. Meredith Stone
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  2. Renata Kokanović
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Correspondence to Renata Kokanović .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Renata Kokanović

  2. School of Philosophical, Historical, and International Studies, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Paula A. Michaels

  3. Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Kate Johnston-Ataata

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Stone, M., Kokanović, R. (2018). Narrating and Disrupting Postnatal Depression. In: Kokanović, R., Michaels, P., Johnston-Ataata, K. (eds) Paths to Parenthood. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0143-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0143-8_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-0142-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-0143-8

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