DANGEROUS MOTHERHOOD: INSANITY AND CHILDBIRTH IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN

"Dangerous Motherhood is the first major study of the close and complex relationship between mental disorder and childbirth. Taking as its main focus the early and mid-nineteenth century, it traces the creation of a new category of mental breakdown, one linked closely to ideals of maternity and domestic ideology. By exploring the relationship between women, their families and their doctors, Marland reveals how explanations for the onset of puerperal insanity were drawn from a broad set of moral, social and environmental frameworks, rather than being seen as bound to female vulnerability and biological explanations alone."--Jacket.