ABSTRACT
In this chapter I re-examine the impact and role of qualitative feminist psychological research, as both a contrast and complement to quantitative studies, such as structured interviews and randomised control trials (RCTs), in research on postnatal depression (PND). Feminist analyses of the concepts and methods employed by traditional clinicians and researchers to investigate PND, led initially to qualitative research as a critique. Qualitative feminist psychology highlighted women’s experiences and the social context of early motherhood, which was taken by the traditional clinical psychologists and medical researchers to be a radical attack, and thus dismissed or ignored (Nicolson, 1998). However, over the past ten years, to a small degree, a mutual tolerance has emerged. Thus mixing methods has become a reality, although one still tinged with caution on both sides.
