Baby Blues: Exploring Perinatal Mental Health

The trope of the harried mother is familiar to many of us. But what is the true toll of pregnancy and parenthood on mental health, and why is this reality so often treated as taboo?

Join a panel of writers, creators and specialists at the Wheeler Centre to explore maternal rage, depression and psychosis, cultural depictions of motherhood, and the importance of sharing lived mental health experiences.

Mental health expert Nicole Highet is the founder and director of the Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE), whose role in the perinatal area has included the implementation of Australia’s $85 million National Perinatal Depression Initiative. Award-winning journalist and co-founder of Media Diversity Australia Antoinette Lattouf is also an ambassador for mental health organisation Gidget Foundation after experiencing postnatal depression and anxiety. In her latest novel Little Plum, author and social worker Laura McPhee-Brown examines depictions of mothers in literature and art.

Lead by poet, performer and advocate Eleanor Jackson, these panellists will draw from their personal experiences and professional insights in a fearless discussion about the oft-overlooked depth and complexity of perinatal mental health.

Conversations in M/OTHER may include references to topics such as mental health, reproductive rights, and childbirth. If you need assistance with any of these issues, you can learn more and seek advice via the Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE), Perintal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) and Beyond Blue.

The official bookseller for M/OTHER is Neighbourhood Books.

M/OTHER is a weekend of fearless conversation about the ways ‘motherhood’ is experienced, portrayed and labelled by those who mother, have been mothered, wish they were mothers, do not identify as mothers, cannot or do not want to mother, and by society at-large.