The way back: medicalization of the puerperium, postpartum depression and hormones

Abstract

In this article, we map contemporary narratives about the postpartum period in order to understand what currently constitutes this stage in the lives of mothers. To this end, we address the following question: what is currently considered abnormal or pathological, and therefore amenable to intervention, in relation to the postpartum period? To answer this question, we analyze medical, institutional, and social media discourses. Narratives that associate the postpartum period with heightened hormonal instability, together with the specific case of postpartum depression, help us understand how this period has become closely tied to the notion of transience—something to be overcome—with a pre-motherhood life serving as the primary point of comparison. Although the demands placed upon mothers are socially produced, failure and exhaustion during the postpartum period are often translated into medical diagnoses.