The Psychiatric Surveillance of Pregnancy and Early Parenting

Abstract

Universal assessment practices aimed at assessing the mental states of women during pregnancy and early parenthood have led to the perinatal period being viewed as synonymous with psychological vulnerability. In addition, women themselves are encouraged to engage in taxing self-monitoring processes aimed at recognising potential ‘signs’ of mental distress, with friends and family also urged to participate. Although both professional and ‘lay’ assessments of maternal mental health are usually imbued with notions of ‘care’ and ‘best interests’, medical and/or therapeutic interventions for mothers who have been identified as distressed frequently locate distress as a biological process and as evidence of individual ‘dysfunction’, thus failing to recognise or address the social drivers of distress, including isolation, gendered violence, and poverty. Further, the highly gendered nexus between maternal mental health and child development theorisations has led to a discourse of ‘compulsory happiness’ for pregnant women and new mothers, whereby they are obliged to manage and monitor their emotional states, regardless of their interpersonal and socio-political circumstances.