Does society cause them ?
After giving birth, most women lapse into some sort of melancholy. Though no one knows precisely what causes post-partum depression, most theories focus on medical factors or psychological ones. British Sociologist Ann Oakley, after a five-year study of 55 first-time mothers in a London hospital, has a different idea: postpartum depression is mostly caused by society.
In her new book on the study. Women Confined, just published in Britain, Oakley presents what amounts to the first feminist theory of postnatal blues. The recipe for the depression, she says, is to create an unrealistic myth about motherhood, offer unfeeling...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
