‘Drowned in a Sea of Inhumanity’: Natural Childbirth, Postnatal Depression and the National Childbirth Trust, 1956–80s

TL;DR

This article explores how the National Childbirth Trust addressed postnatal depression and natural childbirth from the 1950s to the 1980s, linking it to hospital interventions and women's agency.

Contribution

The paper reveals the NCT's evolving approach to postnatal depression and its complex relationship with feminist health movements.

Findings

The NCT linked postnatal depression to hospital deliveries and lack of women's agency.

The organization's stance on natural childbirth influenced its mental health advocacy.

Collaboration with experts sometimes worsened new mothers' mental distress.

Abstract

During the 1970s, the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) began to provide information and support to women experiencing postnatal mental illness, building on its promotion of natural childbirth and emphasis on the emotional wellbeing of women around birth, which had occupied the organisation since its establishment in 1956. This article argues that, alongside emotional, social and medical factors, the NCT attributed postnatal depression to the shift to hospital deliveries, involving high levels of intervention and frustrating women’s choice and agency. While sharing ambitions to improve care in childbirth and giving women a voice in describing their experiences, it is suggested that the NCT’s relationship with the feminist health movement remained ambiguous. The article also explores the NCT’s collaboration with a variety of experts and advisors, some of whom emphasised the risk of postnatal depression to the bonding process and infant’s development, potentially exacerbating the mental distress of new mothers.