Missing voices

de Stephanie Brown, Judith Lumley, Rhonda Small, Jill Astbury

Motherhood is often portrayed as one of the most fulfilling experiences in a woman's life. Books on pregnancy, birth and motherhood not only tell women what they should do, they also encourage them to have high expectations of what is inevitably a 'journey into the unknown'. Missing Voices is different. It makes motherhood compelling and audible by telling the stories of almost 800 recent mothers. We hear about their experiences pregnancy and childbirth, and what they thought of the care they received. Ninety of these women were also interviewed in detail two years later. The result is a moving and a powerful insight into what is like to be a mother in Australia in the 1990s. How do women's daily experiences of motherhood compare with accepted wisdom about 'good mothers'? How is the work of caring for children, domestic chores, and paid employment divided within the family? How do women feel about juggling work - both paid and unpaid? One in seven women was depressed in the year after birth. In Missing Voices women talk candidly and with great feeling about why they were depressed, whom they turned to for help, and how they coped with depression.