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Motherhood has traditionally been associated with feelings of joy, fulfilment and care. However, such representations often silence the actual experiences of maternal distress. The proposed paper examines how maternal distress is normalised in contemporary Indian contexts through the perspective of invisible labour. It argues that Postpartum Distress, particularly Postpartum Depression, often remains unrecognised because it is incorporated within culturally sanctions ideals of motherhood. The paper analyses two literary texts namely The Lowland (2013) by Jhumpa Lahiri and A Terrible Matriarchy (2007) by Easterine Kire. The paper thus demonstrates how maternal distress is overlooked as an expected outcome of nurture and caregiving, raising concern for a re-evaluation of Postpartum Onset as a site of systemic inequality and narrative neglect.
Huma Datt. “Invisible Labour, Invisible Pain: The Normalisation of Postpartum Suffering in Indian Contexts.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 869–888. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.56.
Open Access · CC BY 4.0 · Crossref DOI ·
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