Rachel Louise Moran | Oral History

Rachel Louise Moran

OH 2047

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Carol Dix is a journalist who wrote ten books on topics like young womanhood, miscarriage, and writing. This interview focuses on her popular 1985 book The New Mother Syndrome, and her personal involvement with postpartum depression/maternal mental health advocacy with people like Nancy Berchtold and Jane Honikman, as well as with the Marcé Society and James Hamilton. She discusses her own postpartum, her reasons for writing this book, and her experience with media appearances and book publicity.

OH 2030

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Michael O’Hara has been a leading researcher in the psychology of postpartum depression since the late-1970s/early-1980s. We discussed his entry into psychology and perinatal mental health issues in particular, his involvement in the Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health, and his overall research trajectory. We discussed his transition from cognitive behavioral to interpersonal psychotherapy, changes in the field with regard to hormones and neuroscience, and changing funding climates.

OH 2035

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Karen Kleiman is a clinical social worker and maternal mental health therapist. She founded the Postpartum Stress Center in Pennsylvania in 1988. Kleiman has written and co-written several books on motherhood, postpartum health, and therapy. These include: This Isn’t What I Expected (1994), The Postpartum Husband (2000), What Was I Thinking? (2005), and Dropping the Baby and Other Scary Thoughts (2011).

OH 2034

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Dennie Wolf co-authored chapters on postpartum recovery in the 1979 book Ourselves and Our Children and the 1984 version Our Bodies Ourselves, both publications of the Boston Women’s Health Collective. Our interview included discussion of postpartum depression, the women’s health movement, second wave feminism, and development psychology. The time period discussed was primarily the 1970s-1980s. The interview is part of the postpartum depression project.

OH 2033

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Dr. Katherine Wisner is perinatal psychiatrist, and the founder/inaugural president of the Marcé Society of North America (a professional society focused on research into maternal mental health and postpartum depression, founded in 2010). Wisner has won the John Cox medal and the Marcé medal from the international Marcé society. She discusses her career history and research trajectory, including work on antidepressants.

OH 2032

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Dr. Stotland is a psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago. Her research has focused on issues of reproduction and psychiatry especially around abortion. she was also the 135th President of the American Psychiatric Association, presiding over the publication of DSM-V. We discussed post-abortion trauma syndrome, postpartum depression, women and psychiatry, hormones, and her position as a public figure on abortion issues. The period discussed is primarily the 1970s-1990s.

OH 2031

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Dr. Anne Speckhard is a psychologist who has written on post-abortion stress syndrome, and she has also done research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and on violent extremism. This interview focuses on her work on post-abortion stress, especially in the 1980s. In the interview she discusses family systems theory, and how she began this area of research. She discusses other abortion stress researchers, including Wanda Franz, Terry Selby, and Vincent Rue.

OH 2029

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Jane I. Honikman was a co-founder of Postpartum Education for Parents (1977) and founder of Postpartum Support International (1987). Keywords: postpartum depression, women and mental health, maternal health, Postpartum Support International, Marcé Society, adoption, Postpartum Education for Parents, American Association of University Women, AUW, the international Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health, concealed pregnancy, Our Bodies Ourselves, Dr.

OH 2028

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Wanda Franz is a developmental psychologist and an anti-abortion activist, who has been involved in that work since the 1970s. She was president of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) for twenty years, between 1991-2001. In this interview she speaks especially on her research and activism around “post-abortion syndrome,” the idea abortion can lead to psychological illness, including a 1988 congressional hearing. Interviewee discusses developmental psychology, C. Everett Koop, Ronald Reagan, and Vincent Rue.

OH 2027

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Paula Doress-Worters was a founding member of the Boston Women’s Health Collective (1969). She wrote the chapter on the postpartum in their booklet, Women and their Bodies (1969), and then in the book Our Bodies, Ourselves (1970), She discusses her own postpartum illness and hospitalization in 1966, her experience with the Boston Women’s Collective and Our Bodies, Ourselves.