Paula Nicolson provides a radical critique of traditional medical and social science explanations of post-natal depression; she argues that far from it being an abnormal condition it is a healthy response to a series of losses.

Introduction 1 Women's experience of motherhood 2 Competing explanations of post-natal depression 3 The context of post-natal depression 4 Post-natal care and 'maternity blues' 5 Reflexivity, intervention and the construction of post-natal depression 6 Loss, happiness and post-natal depression: the ultimate paradox 7 Knowledge, myth and the meaning of post-natal depression

Paula Nicolson is Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at the Sheffield School for Health and Related Research, Sheffield University. Her previous publications include Gender, Power and Organization (1996), Female Sexuality (1994; edited with Precilla Choi), and Gender Issues in Clinical Psychology (1992; edited with Jane Ussher).