Birth of a New Brain ─ Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder

When a new mother becomes manic overnight from a rare form of bipolar disorder, she stops at nothing to find the mental stability she needs to stay alive.

After the birth of her baby triggers a manic maelstrom, Dyane Harwood struggles to survive the bewildering highs and crippling lows of her brain’s turmoil. Birth of a New Brain vividly depicts her postpartum bipolar disorder, an unusual type of bipolar disorder and postpartum mood and anxiety disorder. 

During her childhood, Harwood grew up close to her father, a brilliant violinist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic who had bipolar disorder. She learned how bipolar disorder could ravage a family, but she never suspected that she’d become mentally ill—until her baby was born. 

Harwood wondered if mental health would always be out of her reach. From medications to electroconvulsive therapy, from “redwood forest baths” to bibliotherapy, she explored both traditional and unconventional methods of recovery—in-between harrowing psychiatric hospitalizations. 

Harwood reveals how she ultimately achieved a stable mood. She discovered that despite having a chronic mood disorder, a new, richer life is possible. Birth of a New Brain is the chronicle of one mother’s perseverance, offering hope and grounded advice for those battling mental illness.

Dyane Harwood holds a B.A. in English and American Literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz. A freelance writer for two decades, she has interviewed bestselling authors including Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, Anthony Bourdain, and SARK. In 2007, Harwood was diagnosed with postpartum bipolar disorder (bipolar, peripartum onset).

Harwood has been profiled in The Huffington Post about her postpartum mental health advocacy. PsychCentral honored Harwood as a Mental Health Hero, and the International Bipolar Foundation featured her as a “Story of Hope and Recovery.” Harwood has written about postpartum bipolar disorder for The Mighty, Anchor Magazine, Postpartum Support International, Postpartum Progress, and the Stigma Fighters Anthology. She founded a chapter of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) and facilitated free support groups for women for nine years. Harwood lives in Ben Lomond, California, with her two daughters, husband, and Scotch collie.

Dr. Carol Henshaw was a Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of Keele, UK, a consultant psychiatrist at the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Trust and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. She has served on the Executive Committee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Perinatal Section. Dr. Henshaw is a former president of the International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health, a scientific society devoted to mental illness related to childbearing. She has published numerous articles on perinatal depression. Dr. Henshaw is the co-author of The Modern Management of Perinatal Psychiatry, Perinatal Mental Health: The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) Manual, and Screening for Perinatal Depression.