Hidden Fractures

Paula Xiberras

Dawn Barker has only been to Tasmania once and that was when her baby was six months old. Dawn remembers visiting Salamanca, the beauty of the port city and memories of watching an old village fisherman. Her memories also climb to Mt Wellington, freezing in the summer, but not a bother for Dawn having come from slightly cold and similarly beautiful Scotland!

Dawn is surprised and delighted to know of her book’s reception and mainstream promotion. This, Dawn considers a particular success as her book deals with confronting subject matter.

Dawn is a psychiatrist and is well informed to write this book about one of the most taboo subjects there is, it deals with what may go wrong when a mother suffers severe post natal depression and psychosis.

Dawn says that society is changing and that now we can talk about conditions like diabetes and illnesses like bowel cancer but still there is some stigma assigned to mental illness which makes it hard to enter mainstream conversation.

The protagonist of Dawn’s novel is an likeable, intelligent, university educated young woman who sets herself high goals for successful mothering but finds the process of coping with a new baby and resultant sleep deprivation a constant problem. Like some mothers in mothers group she can’t confess her problems thus admitting she is not textbook material.

We later learn that her own mother suffered depression and so we become familiar with the saying ‘there are ghosts in every nursery’ and that we need to know what came before in our own childhood to help our own child-raising.

The book poses the question if there was more openness between daughter and mother of the latter’s own mental illness, would it have helped the daughter understand these difficulties and seek help.

Having said that, guilt from other characters does surface in the story include a mother -in- law that blames what happens on a decision made years ago and sees this as some sort of divine retribution. Anna’s husband also feels guilt for not being more attentive to her needs when he knew instinctively she was having problems.

Dawn is keen to stress none of the characters did anything wrong. Dealing with post -natal depression is difficult simply because we don’t talk about it and so don’t necessarily know how to deal with it.

Perhaps the most important thing to learn from Dawn’s book is to be alert to recognising the signs of post natal depression that go beyond the usual normal baby blues that many new mothers experience.

Dawn says what may seem like a difficulty in bonding can develop into something more dangerous and the measurement of this is the longevity and severity of the baby blues. If it lasts longer than it should and if the mother is not coping and finds little pleasure or happiness in anything then we need to be attentive to this and offer help.

The book doesn’t have the tidy fairytale ending simply because to do that, Dawn says would belittle the problem.

To add to the suspense of the novel the chapters are superbly headed ‘the day before’ the day after’ and probably most ominously ‘the day’.

Its a stunning debut and although the subject matter is something that we don’t necessarily like reading about, it is something we should all read to learn more about a condition that has been for too long silenced from polite conversation.

The more informed we are and the more attuned to recognise the signs the better we are to protect and support mothers and children.

Fractured is available now.