Overview

If you think you know what mental health during and after pregnancy looks like, Persevered: A Maternal Mental Health Memoir will make you reconsider. Dr. Kara Zivin offers a rare, unfiltered look at what happened when a respected mental health researcher faced her own grave battle with depression and anxiety during and after pregnancy. This book is a raw personal account of surviving the darkest moments of new motherhood while juggling high expectations at home and at work. Zivin takes the reader on an intimate and eye-opening journey that weaves together her perinatal medical records, journal entries, research, and imperfect memories. The story unfolds across hospital rooms, the author’s home, and the university where she works, highlighting the complexity of holding on to one’s identity when everything feels uncertain. Zivin writes with striking honesty about the confusion, guilt, and isolation that so many mothers experience alone but rarely admit to others. Her willingness to lay bare her struggles and her gradual journey toward hope and recovery makes every page feel authentic and deeply relatable. Persevered moves beyond one woman’s survival, breaking the silence that still surrounds maternal mental health. Zivin’s story reminds us that reaching out, sharing our experiences, and demanding better support can make a difference, not just for mothers but for families and communities. This memoir is for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed, anyone who has supported a loved one through challenging times, or anyone who believes that honest storytelling can spark real change.

Full Product Details

9780804012645

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Kara Zivin brings to this bold and unflinching memoir a scientist’s mind, a storyteller’s art, and a mother’s love. Those with peripartum depression, their families, and their clinical caregivers will be informed and moved by Persevered. I’ll be recommending this wise, compassionate, and much-needed book to friends and colleagues."" - Suzanne Koven, MD, author of Letter to a Young Female Physician: Notes from a Medical Life ""Stunning, heartbreaking, and gorgeous-Persevered took my breath away. Vividly rendered and profoundly moving, this book is a true gift that will do so much good in the world. An unforgettable read I’ll be recommending to so many people."" - Rana Awdish, MD, author of In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope ""Persevered is one of those rare memoirs that seamlessly blends personal journey and scientific expertise to engage and inspire. In the tradition of An Unquiet Mind and 10 Percent Happier, Kara Zivin fearlessly explores her own mental health struggles and the science behind them, offering powerful insights into resilience and healing in the context of a crucially important and deeply human public health issue."" - Ethan Kross, PhD, author of Shift: Managing Your Emotions—So They Don't Manage You ""Persevered is a brave, lucid examination of maternal mental health that refuses easy answers. Kara Zivin writes with the authority of a researcher and the honesty of a mother, exposing how systems, and not women, are failing. A vital and validating book."" - Pooja Lakshmin, MD, author of Real Self-Care ""Persevered is a compelling fusion of the lyric and the scientific-a difficult balance-and one Kara Zivin pulls off with remarkable skill. This important book breaks long-held silences and speaks to women of all ages who remain hesitant to discuss their bodies and mental health. Zivin is simply brilliant: both as a writer and as a scientist. Her courage in sharing this narrative is deeply admirable."" - Sue William Silverman, MFA, author of Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader ""Kara Zivin grants language to what so many mothers are taught to hide. Persevered makes readers feel seen and less alone, offering both profound affirmation and a path toward compassion-for clinicians, loved ones, and mothers themselves."" - Jessica Zucker, PhD, author of Normalize It: Upending the Silence, Stigma, and Shame That Shape Women's Lives and I Had a Miscarriage: A Memoir ""Kara Zivin lays bare the impossible collision of new motherhood, academic ambition, and mental collapse. Persevered is memoir at its most courageous-raw, exacting, and urgently necessary."" - Kelly Sundberg, PhD, MFA, author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl: A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival and The Answer is in the Wound: Trauma, Rage, and Alchemy ""Persevered clearly articulates what every perinatal clinician should know: maternal mental health crises are common, treatable, and deadly if ignored. Kara Zivin's insightful and brave researcher-patient lens demands that we build better systems of care."" - Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH, reproductive psychiatrist and executive dean, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine ""Kara Zivin’s stories of her mother's and sister's postpartum depressions illuminate a crucial truth: mental illness is inherited, yet our healthcare system neglects prevention and intervention during pregnancy. Her narrative exposes the denial and stigma that perpetuate this crisis-and shows we know how to fix it, but too often don’t."" - Jane Honikman, MS, founder, Postpartum Support International

""Kara Zivin brings to this bold and unflinching memoir a scientist’s mind, a storyteller’s art, and a mother’s love. Those with peripartum depression, their families, and their clinical caregivers will be informed and moved by Persevered. I’ll be recommending this wise, compassionate, and much-needed book to friends and colleagues."" - Suzanne Koven, MD, author of Letter to a Young Female Physician: Notes from a Medical Life ""Stunning, heartbreaking, and gorgeous-Persevered took my breath away. Vividly rendered and profoundly moving, this book is a true gift that will do so much good in the world. An unforgettable read I’ll be recommending to so many people."" - Rana Awdish, MD, author of In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope ""Persevered is one of those rare memoirs that seamlessly blends personal journey and scientific expertise to engage and inspire. In the tradition of An Unquiet Mind and 10 Percent Happier, Kara Zivin fearlessly explores her own mental health struggles and the science behind them, offering powerful insights into resilience and healing in the context of a crucially important and deeply human public health issue."" - Ethan Kross, PhD, author of Shift: Managing Your Emotions—So They Don't Manage You ""Persevered is a brave, lucid examination of maternal mental health that refuses easy answers. Kara Zivin writes with the authority of a researcher and the honesty of a mother, exposing how systems, and not women, are failing. A vital and validating book."" - Pooja Lakshmin, MD, author of Real Self-Care ""Persevered is a compelling fusion of the lyric and the scientific-a difficult balance-and one Kara Zivin pulls off with remarkable skill. This important book breaks long-held silences and speaks to women of all ages who remain hesitant to discuss their bodies and mental health. Zivin is simply brilliant: both as a writer and as a scientist. Her courage in sharing this narrative is deeply admirable."" - Sue William Silverman, MFA, author of Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader ""Kara Zivin grants language to what so many mothers are taught to hide. Persevered makes readers feel seen and less alone, offering both profound affirmation and a path toward compassion-for clinicians, loved ones, and mothers themselves."" - Jessica Zucker, PhD, author of Normalize It: Upending the Silence, Stigma, and Shame That Shape Women's Lives and I Had a Miscarriage: A Memoir

Author Information

Kara Zivin, PhD, MS, MA, MFA, is a professor of psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, and health management and policy at the University of Michigan. She aims to increase public awareness about mental health conditions and to influence policy addressing them by combining research expertise (data) and personal narrative (story). She has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles in health and medical journals and led more than $25 million in research grants and contracts.

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