An Illness Narrative Study Of Postpartum Depression

The illness experience and narrative process of postpartum depression are not only related to women’s physical and mental health,but also related to cognition and social organization.The illness narrative constructs the reality of women’s life and the social reality of the world.Based on a field survey conducted in Lanzhou,this study writes women’s postpartum depression narratives,and then uses this illness narrative to focus on family relationships,community ties,and social norms at the public level,and analyzes the social reasons behind a series of illness experiences and cultural metaphors that accompany postpartum depression.Through integrating social reasons with biomedical knowledge,we present the significance of illness narrative in the process of how people coexist with postpartum depression.Combining the illness narrative theory in medical anthropology to explore the relationship between postpartum depression and personal life,family world,social culture,and national system,this study proposes that women’s illness narrative of postpartum depression is a fracture narrative with healing effect.As a part of it,the narrative of the motherhood transformation constitutes the content by which women with postpartum depression use to accomplish identity reconstruction and adjustment.The healing effect of community and social support is also manifested in the illness narrative of postpartum depression.The narrative of postpartum depression is a fractured narrative.It is in the experience and speech of the fracture that the illness narrative helps women reconstruct the identity of motherhood and reintegrate their own life narratives.Under the dual metaphors of both concealment and revealing of postpartum depression,the narrative itself also has healing effect for the illness.Women rebuild the sense of order and continuity of life in the illness narrative of postpartum depression.The family,community and society in which the individual is in provides support for women with postpartum depression through multiple forms of care,and the significance of care is reinforced by the illness narrative of postpartum depression.In addition,this study supplements the illness narrative study in medical anthropology and the women narrative study with the illness narrative study of postpartum depression.The women’s narrative shows the suppression of woman groups under the social and cultural background of patriarchy,and we use narrative study as a method to integrate the separation of natural and cultural perspectives.