Eyes Without Sparkle: A Journey Through Postnatal Illness

Citation

(2005), "Eyes Without Sparkle: A Journey Through Postnatal Illness", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 18 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2005.06218bae.004

Eyes Without Sparkle: A Journey Through Postnatal Illness

Eyes Without Sparkle: A Journey Through Postnatal Illness

Elaine A HanzakRadcliffe Publishing2005ISBN 1 85775 655 X

Keywords: Depression, Mental health services, Patients, Patient care

Eyes Without Sparkle is a powerful medical autobiography describing the journey followed by the author into, through, and out of puerperal psychosis, the most severe form of postnatal depression. With vivid and intimate descriptions of events and the author’s feelings, this is the only book offering a single first-hand account of postnatal illness.

The book serves as an inspiration for anyone suffering from or involved with a depressive illness. For health and social care professionals it is a reflective guide to learning from patients’ experiences, and the examples of positive and negative aspects of treatment can inform mental health services and policies.

This book is an honest and moving account that takes us from a happy family life with the joy of childbirth ahead, into a world that we hope personally never to enter but which for some, including those around us or cared for by us, is all too recognisable and real. It highlights the importance of caring and compassion, and the “little things” in getting the quality of patient experience right. Health service staff have to listen. Elaine’s story above all reinforces that however busy, however complex, for a quality patient experience the journey has to be shared (Judith Ellis, Chief Nurse, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London).

This book has the potential to provide comfort and hope to those who are experiencing this illness. It should help them to seek the right support and also to have faith that they can get through it (Sarah Mullally, Chief Nursing Officer, Department of Health, England).

Contents include:

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  “My life before becoming a ‘Hanzak’”;

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  “Nick and I”;

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  “The birth”;

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  “Another hospital stay”;

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  “Pressure pressure”;

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  “Losing it”;

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  “Looking upwards and outwards”;

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  “Back to reality”; and

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  “Spreading the word”.