Pregnancy and motherhood are often hailed as the happiest time in a woman’s life, but it can also be a time of extreme stress and psychiatric difficulty.
In the UK, around one in five new mums experience a mental health problem before their baby’s first birthday, many for the first time in their life.
Award-winning filmmaker Louis Theroux returns to the UK to spend time in two specialist psychiatric units, which treat mothers experiencing serious mental illness whilst allowing them to live alongside their babies.
Immersing himself on the wards, he meets women who have been admitted with a range of serious conditions – including depression, anxiety and psychosis – often triggered by birth or the strains of motherhood.
As he follows the patients and their families both in hospital and recovering back at home, Louis explores what lies behind their recent crisis and discovers the immense challenge in caring for two people in the most vulnerable state of their lives.
Production credits: BBC Docs and Investigation.
Louis Theroux: Mothers On The Edge airs Sunday 7 March at 8.30pm on ABCTV Plus
