The Republic of Motherhood and Postpartum Psychosis

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Ariane Beeston entered motherhood with the belief that she would experience an instant wave of love upon her son’s birth, expecting a seamless transition into parenting. However, reality unfolded quite differently. Instead of joy, Ariane found herself grappling with terrifying delusions about her own mortality, a deep-seated paranoia that social services would remove her child, and vivid hallucinations that transformed her baby into a menacing dragon.

We are thrilled to welcome Ariane Beeston who shares her lived experience of postpartum psychosis.

Ariane was a child protection worker - (later to be a registered psychologist) working for the Department of Communities and Justice in New South Wales when she gave birth to her baby, a little boy Henry, when she quickly began to experience frightening breaks with reality. She was later diagnosed with severe postpartum depression with psychotic features. At this point, I would like to issue a TRIGGER WARNING for this episode as we may be discussing eating disorders, infanticide, and suicide.

Ariane is now the Communications and Content Manager for the Centre of Perinatal Excellence, - known as COPE. She's also a dancer and a choreographer.

Produced and written by Caroline Kelly - clkproductionsmedia@gmail.com

Content Design and Socials - Daniel Borbely - Sequenced - daniel@sequence-ed.com

Sound Recordist: Fran Toscano - 17th Street Audio fran@17thstreetaudio.com

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!

****SEND IN YOUR EMAILS/QUESTIONS/COMMENTS - WITH "GLASS HOUSE QUESTION" IN SUBJECT LINE TO;

clkproductionsmedia@gmail.com - and we will endeavour to answer your question in a bonus episode at the end of the series.

ARIANE'S BOOK "BECAUSE I'M NOT MYSELF YOU SEE"

https://www.amazon.com.au/Because-Not-Myself-You-See-ebook/dp/B0CM4T4RJF

COPE - Centre of Perinatal Excellence https://www.cope.org.au/

READY TO COPE APP

https://www.cope.org.au/readytocope/

Liz Berry - Poet - https://www.lizberrypoetry.co.uk/

Liz Berry reads "The Republic of Motherhood"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDyvUDZPyL0