After the Storm

“How did it come to this? I am tough, I am smart, I have lived alone. Now I am cracking, right down the middle…”

Six months after the birth of her son, Emma Jane Unsworth finds herself in the eye of a storm. Nothing – from pregnancy to birth and beyond – has gone as she expected. A birth plan? It might as well have been a rough draft! Furious and exhausted, her life is the complete opposite of what it used to be. She’s swapped all night benders for a grazed labia and Whac-a-Moling haemorrhoids. How did she end up here?

In this brave and hilarious account of postnatal depression, Emma tells her story of despair and recovery. She tackles the biggest taboos around motherhood and mental health, from botched stitches and bleeding nipples to anger and shame. How does pregnancy adapt our brains? Is postnatal depression a natural reaction to the trauma of modern motherhood? And are people’s attitudes finally changing?

Dazzling and vital, After the Storm is a celebration of survival, holding out a hand to women everywhere.