Review of Bonkers - Olivia Siegl

This book advertises as a mum’s honest tale of motherhood, mayhem and mental health.


As a mum of two grown up children myself, and having gone through post-natal depression with my second child, this book resonated with me. I was lucky as I had a Health Visitor who spotted what was happening, quite rare then. She got me the help I needed.


This book points out how so many people aren’t prepared to talk about maternal mental health, but it discusses much more than this. The author not only went through post-natal depression, but post-natal psychosis, something I knew nothing about until I had a friend who had suffered with it. She was older than me, and at that time it meant her being separated from her baby for three months. Again, things have changed since she struggled with this awful illness, but people are still unwilling to talk about it.


This book covers other subjects with a mix of blunt honesty and laughter, pointing out the attitude of mothers to other mothers, how they judge each other. For example, in the area of feeding your baby. The question, whether to breast feed or bottle feed, how mothers have differing opinions, then impose those opinions on other mothers. They assume they are right, and make this known with force.


Olivia tells the story of how she survived two children, both born prematurely, the struggles with feeding, no sleep and the realisation of how her mental health was deteriorating. She suffered this with both of her children and so wanted to share a subject with other mothers to both warn and educate them. I believe, as it says, this is a book that all mothers should read, a funny, but serious book on what seems to be a taboo subject, maternal mental health. A time when a mother should be so happy can be a time of such difficulty; mix in post-natal depression or psychosis, and this blessed time can become a nightmare.