“Searing....Menkedick is a skilled storyteller and her accounts of women from varied socioeconomic and racial backgrounds drive home how little society has to offer mothers....Her wide-ranging narrative touches on everything from neurobiology to politics and psychology, and it mirrors what anxiety feels like.” —Susannah Cahalan, The New York Times Book Review

"Menkedick is a superb storyteller, and her writing is filled with remarkable scientific and literary references."
–Publishers Weekly

“explosive, keenly observed…Meticulously constructed, the book interweaves personal narrative and profiles of new mothers with historical research and medical reporting.” — Library Journal, starred review

“Menkedick pairs anecdotal case studies with explorations of the psychological, neurobiological, historical, and cultural underpinnings of motherhood in the twenty-first century…Women’s stories, she ultimately concludes, are essential to reclaiming motherhood. Arming readers with an understanding of the underlying structures that shape private experience, Menkedick also gives real mothers space to share their own harrowing stories. This, she says, is the best weapon for fighting it.” –Booklist

"Ordinary Insanity would have provided me great solace during my lonely months home alone with an infant, wondering what was wrong with me. Menkedick builds a compelling case around the reasons I may have felt that way, starting with physical changes to the mother’s body that begin during pregnancy. I now understand how my brain and hormones conspired to heighten my response to the slightest sign of distress.....Menkedick seeks to lead the reader to a place of hope rather than despair. She envisions an alternative to the current culture of fear that produces such anxiety for new mothers, one in which women feel empowered to make choices about their lives that are driven by intuition and common sense. " –Colleen Rothman, PULP

“Sarah Menkedick’s new book, Ordinary Insanity: Fear and the Silent Crisis of Motherhood in America is about fear, of course, and anxiety, but it’s also about community…In her discussion of motherhood as a profoundly transformative event—and firm belief that it’s important to recognize it as such—Menkedick describes feeling a newfound willingness to open to the intimacy of quiet moments, even with people she already felt close to, but also with women she met only once she began actively seeking out a community of mothers…Menkedick’s gathering of stories was nuanced and subtle: part research, but also part intimacy through the act of bearing witness. Part of offering support for new mothers involves changing the conversation at the institutional level, but it’s easy to see through Menkedick’s writing how much change can be instituted at a much more personal and intimate level.” – Amanda Parrish Morgan, Plougshares

“A stunningly researched, vulnerable, and urgent book about the tightrope of motherhood in our broken and prejudiced society and the unbearable burden of maternal expectations.” — Lauren Markham, author of The Far Away Brothers

“This is an essential book I didn’t even know I needed, which filled in blanks I didn’t even know I had. Its urgent message should be spread far and wide by anyone who works with mothers, lives with mothers, or plans to be a mother. It will leave you with a greater understanding of Mother, yes, but it will also make you feel less alone in the world.” — Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us

“Ordinary Insanity is a bold and ambitious book about the magnificent, messy transformation that is motherhood, and about the resilience of women. Sarah Menkedick explores with intellect and empathy what is expected of ‘good’ mothers, what we expect of ourselves, and the complicated entanglement of the two.” —Rachel Friedman, author of And Then We Grew Up: On Creativity, Potential, and the Imperfect Art of Adulthood

THE BOOK

A groundbreaking exposé and diagnosis of the silent epidemic of fear afflicting mothers, and a candid, feminist deep dive into the culture, science, history, and psychology of contemporary motherhood.

Anxiety among mothers is a growing but largely unrecognized crisis. In the transition to motherhood and the years that follow, countless women suffer from overwhelming feelings of fear, grief, and obsession that do not fit neatly within the outmoded category of “postpartum depression.” These women soon discover that there is precious little support or time for their care, even as expectations about what mothers should do and be continue to rise. Many struggle to distinguish normal worry from crippling madness in a culture in which their anxiety is often ignored, normalized, or most dangerously, seen as taboo.

Drawing on extensive research, countless interviews, and the raw particulars of her own experience with anxiety, writer and mother Sarah Menkedick gives us a comprehensive examination of the biology, psychology, history, and societal conditions surrounding the crushing and life-limiting fear that is becoming the norm for so many. Woven into the stories of women’s lives, Menkedick examines factors like the changing structure of the maternal brain, the ethically problematic ways risk is construed during pregnancy, and the marginalization of motherhood as an identity, asking how motherhood came to be an experience so dominated by anxiety and how mothers might reclaim it. Writing with profound empathy, visceral honesty, and deep understanding, Menkedick makes clear how critically we need to expand our awareness, compassion, and care for women's lives.

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