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.
Fear among new mothers is a growing but largely unrecognized crisis. In the months before and after birth, countless women suffer from overwhelming feelings of fear, grief, or obsession that do not fall neatly within the outmoded category of "postpartum depression." These women are left isolated and captive, fending for themselves with scarce resources for their care and precious little time or support as they attempt to distinguish normal worry from debilitating anxiety. This crippling state of madness, though sometimes temporary, is commonly left untreated, and, perhaps even more dangerously, treated as a taboo in our culture.
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.
Praise for Ordinary Insanity
“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
“Untold numbers of new mothers suffer from postpartum anxiety, a debilitating condition that is not only undiagnosed, but unrecognized by medical authorities, according to this explosive, keenly observed book by essayist Menkedick (Homing Instincts). Meticulously constructed, the book interweaves personal narrative and profiles of new mothers with historical research and medical reporting. Each of its seven sections pairs the experience of an individual mother and an aspect of society’s and medicine’s oppressive, restrictive treatment of women, particularly mothers. The topics are weighty; among them: the racialized stigmatization of midwifery; the role of white supremacy in the history of the women’s rights movement; and expert-guided mothering, which controls women’s behavior by imposing scientifically or quasiscientifically determined norms (this paired with the horrifying narrative of one new mother’s involuntary confinement to inpatient psychiatric care). It’s difficult content, lightened by Menkedick’s empathy and her affirmation of a wide range of heretofore stigmatized behaviors, from rage to cosleeping.” — 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