Catherine Cho on postpartum psychosis and why we need to talk about maternal mental health

One day, when her son Cato was three months old, Catherine Cho looked at him and, instead of his eyes, she saw devil eyes. She and her husband James had taken Cato to the US from their home in London to introduce him to relatives. She grew gradually more anxious as the trip went on, before being hit by a tidal wave of postpartum psychosis, becoming convinced that she was in hell and that her son was going to die. She was sectioned. Inferno is her astonishing memoir about what happened next. Moving between scenes from her childhood, her romance with James, and her newly infantilised existence in a psychiatric institution, it’s powerful, raw and eye opening. I’m so grateful to Catherine for talking to me about this - as well as what it was like reliving her trauma for the book, her anxiety over having a second child, and the urgent need to open up the conversation around maternal mental health. Buy the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/inferno/catherine-cho/9781526619044 Edited by Chelsey Moore

Om Podcasten

The Sunday Salon is a podcast celebrating brilliant books and the women who write them, hosted by journalist Alice-Azania Jarvis. Each week she chats to an inspiring female author about her work, her career, how she writes, what she reads and everything in between. This is not some academic textual analysis – it’s about finding the stories behind the stories. Tune in each Sunday to hear from guests including Isabel Allende, Jessie Burton, Holly Bourne, Diana Evans, Elizabeth Day, Nimco Ali and Sophie Kinsella. Edited by Chelsey Moore.