Missing Voices

Motherhood is often portrayed as one of the most fulfilling experiences in a woman's life. Books on pregnancy, birth and motherhood not only tell women what they should do, they also encourage them to have high expectations of what is inevitably a 'journey into the unknown'. Missing Voices isdifferent: its authors offer no prescriptions. Instead they tell the stories of 800 recent mothers. We hear about what happened to them during pregnancy and childbirth, what contributed to good and bad experiences of birth, and what women thought of the care they received. Ninety of the women went on to participate in interviews two years later. The result is a moving and powerful account of what it is like to be a mother in Australia in the 1990s. How do mothers' daily lives compare with accepted wisdom about 'good mothers'? How is the work of caring for children,running the household and providing financial support divided within the family? How do women feel about the care of children and work - both paid and unpaid? One in seven women was depressed in the year after birth. In Missing Voices they talk candidly about the origins of this depression and howthey coped with it. This is a book for all mothers (and fathers), for anyone contemplating having children, and for all those concerned about the health and well-being of mothers, children and families.