Louis Theroux has revealed his next documentary, Mothers On The Edge, will focus on mums with postpartum mental illness.
The British filmmakers has delved into some uncomfortable topics over the years, from the neo-Nazi movement across America to euthanasia. In his new film, Louis spends time in two specialist psychiatric units that treat mums with various serious postpartum conditions, such as depression or psychosis.
Mothers On The Edge will follow the mums and their families as they receive treatment in hospital and continue to recover at home.
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While most people have heard of post-natal depression, it's very rare we ever hear about postpartum psychosis and other conditions that affect new mums. What's even more shocking is that one in five mums will suffer from mental health issues before their child's first birthday - so why isn't this being talked about more?
When asked why Louis had decided to cover post-partum mental health, he admitted he didn't know much about psychosis until it was brought to his attention by someone on his team.
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"I'd heard of postnatal depression before, but this was a new one for me," he told Stylist. "It affects about one in every 200 new mums, and symptoms include visual and auditory hallucinations, as well as profoundly irrational and disordered thoughts. It seemed to me to be a story we could do justice to.
"I thought it would be powerful to explore the idea of what is supposed to be this magical and amazing time of creating a new life, and those first weeks and months of caring for that new person, when it's all overlaid with deeply distressing mental illness.
"It seemed to me both very sad but also potentially life affirming, in the sense that we'd hope to share the reality of the condition to create more awareness of it and follow people as they recover from it."
Mothers On The Edge will air on BBC Two in May.
Featured Image Credit: BBCTopics: TV News, louis theroux, TV Entertainment