We need to talk about postpartum psychosis, with Catherine Cho

Doing It Right with Pandora Sykes

Pandora Sykes

Society & Culture

4.6 • 835 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

So many women experience a postpartum mental disorder after having a baby. For me, it was postnatal depression. For Catherine Cho, it was postpartum psychosis. You might not have thought about postpartum psychosis before. Certainly, I had no idea before I read Catherine’s memoir, that 1-2 in every 1000 women will be affected by it. So why isn’t it being talked about more? Or even, at all? In this episode, Catherine explains how she came to be sectioned on a psychiatric ward, how it impacted her relationship with her baby son and the rest of her family, the depression which followed her psychosis, and how she navigated second time motherhood. I know this episode might feel scary to some of you. But I believe that forewarned is forearmed. That knowing about these things can better protect us and those around us. And that politically, we should be talking more about matrescence - thought to be as big a cognitive change as puberty! - and how to improve maternal mental health. If you or someone you know is struggling, please call your GP or the NHS helpline, on 111. If it is an emergency, please call 999. For more information, visit app-network.org. Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness by Catherine Cho You can read an excerpt of Catherine’s book, here. Get in touch at [email protected] Presented by Pandora Sykes Sound by Kelsey Bennett Co-production by Pandora Sykes and Kelsey Bennett

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Doing It Right with me, Pandora Sykes, a podcast where I talk to experts about the myths, anxieties and trends of modern life.
0:15.4	In this series, series four, I'll be exploring topics including postpartum psychosis, sociopathy, and how technology
0:24.2	has flattened personal taste. This is a podcast that asks, what can we do to understand life
0:30.9	better? Not just for ourselves, but for everyone. For the first time ever, I'm dropping the whole
0:37.2	series in one as a capsule box set.
0:39.7	So tuck in.
0:40.9	And don't forget to let me know your thoughts at
0:43.1	Doing It Rightpod at gmail.com.
0:50.6	Catherine Cho is a literary agent
0:52.7	and the author of the 2020 book, Inferno, a memoir of motherhood and madness,
0:58.8	about the postpartum psychosis she experienced after the birth of her son, Cato.
1:04.2	So many women experience what is categorised as a postpartum mental disorder after having a baby. For me, it was postnatal
1:13.5	depression. For Catherine, it was postpartum psychosis. You might not have thought about postpartum
1:20.3	psychosis ever before. You might not have ever heard of it, but it's much more common than I
1:25.1	realised before I read Inferno.
1:28.2	One in two women in 1,000 will be affected by it.
1:32.6	So why isn't it being talked about more?
1:36.1	In this episode, Catherine describes her stint on an involuntary psychiatric ward
1:41.5	as a complete lack of reality where she lost all sense of time and space.
1:48.6	We also discuss how it came to happen, how it impacted her family, the depression which followed
1:54.9	her psychosis and how she navigated second time motherhood, where she had a 50% risk of developing postpartum
2:03.5	psychosis again. I'm pleased to say she was very well the second time round. I understand that
	...

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