A FROME author has released a memoir, charting her recovery from postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), following the birth of her twins in 2018.
Jessica Cornwell’s book, Birth Notes, was launched last week to coincide with Maternal Mental Health week, a campaign dedicated to talking about mental illness while pregnant or after having a baby.
Before entering motherhood, Jessica was a crime writer – Birth Notes is her first work of non-fiction.
The book’s synopsis says, “Following the birth of her first children, twin boys, Jessica Cornwell collapsed in a fever. Rushed back to hospital, she was initially dismissed, before a life-threatening infection was diagnosed. Alone, recovering, watching her body bruise and break, a curious thing happened: she stopped feeling.
“At home, the numbness remained. Nursing her boys through jaundice, learning to breastfeed, slowly re-emerging into a world where other mothers seemed to cope, Jessica hid her secret – she felt no love, only fear. Worse, vivid memories began to surface, of moments in her past she thought buried.
“Jessica began to name, one by one, the shadows that returned to haunt her first year as a mother. And in claiming back the words, she fought to claim back her life and the love she bore her young family.
“Birth Notes is the story – luminous, breathtaking and courageous – of forging a self from fragments. With eloquent rage and searing honesty, it speaks for the unvoiced and shines a light on maternal mental health. It is the love story of a mother for her children and a woman for herself.”
The book is now available from Hunting Raven book shop in Cheap Street.
Pictured: Jessica Cornwell (photo by Diana Patient) and the front cover of Jessica’s book.
