(F)ailing mothers and the quest for redemption: a sociological study of postnatal depression recovery blogs

This article offers a sociological study of postnatal depression recovery blogs. Such media render ‘failing’ and ‘ailing’ publicly accountable in response to the performative demands of motherhood and the health role. Drawing from nine Anglophone blogs and classic and contemporary scholarship (e.g. on cycles of redemption, the medicalisation of cyberspace), it explores three main themes: (1) guilt, (2) purification and (3) redemption. Analysing these themes provides virtual ethnographic insights on the public drama of medicalised maternal distress. Critically, the limitations of medicalised rhetoric are also considered in a postfeminist context of stigma, deviance, shame and mother blame. Finally, the limitations of this study plus possibilities for future research, policy and social change are highlighted.