Past Events
- The Institute of Ideas and SPIT-LIT present:
- Does motherhood drive you mad?
- an afternoon discussion
- Venue: Upstairs at The Spitz, 109 Commercial Street, London, E1
- Date: March 14, 2004
- Time: 2.30pm - 4pm
- Tickets: 020 7247 2584
- This event has now taken place.
Transcripts available:
According to 'experts', growing numbers of women are traumatised by childbirth and are not capable of child-rearing without professional help.
Studies suggest antenatal and postnatal depression are reaching record levels. Some psychiatrists now diagnose 'Tokophobia', a terrible fear of childbirth, as a new mental illness. Some feminists have drawn attention to this apparent epidemic of mental illness to emphasise the great difficulties women now face as mothers. Policy-makers and health promotion professionals conclude that it is harder than ever to be a parent. Meanwhile, government initiatives, such as Surestart, warn us that children's early years are a key point in their development. If mothers mess up in the first two years, their children will be damaged.
So, it is argued, we need more and new kinds of external interventions in order to be good parents. Antenatal classes, childbirth mentoring, postnatal listening visits, parenting courses and supportive counselling are all recommended if we are to cope with the transition to motherhood, stay sane, and not psychologically damage our offspring.
But is motherhood really more depressing than ever? Do women gain from the medicalisation of their experience, the redefinition of their problems as mental illness? Do professional counsellors and mentors liberate women from the stress of motherhood, or do they constitute an overbearing nanny state, Big Mother?
Speakers:
- Lisa Harker
- director of the Daycare Trust, former deputy director of the IPPR, and co-author of An Equal Start
- Brid Hehir
- former health visitor and co-author of Alternative Medicine: should we swallow it?
- Ellie Lee
- director, Pro-Choice Forum; series editor, Institute of Ideas' Debating Matters books and author of Abortion, Motherhood, and Mental Health: Medicalizing Reproduction in the US and Britain (Social Problems and Social Issues)
- Angela Neustatter
- journalist and Guardian columnist
- Naomi Stadlen
- counsellor; pioneered Mothers Talking, a discussion group for mothers; author of What Mothers Do - Especially When It Looks Like Nothing, Piatkus Books
Chaired by
- Claire Fox
- director, Institute of Ideas