In this quiet and spacious landscape lies the story of some of Chapel Hill's rich cultural and natural history. When University of North Carolina botany professor William chambers Coker purchased the hilly area now known as Coker Hills, he bought it with a keen eye for the flora and the dramatic rises. Author Jill Blackburn is a graduate of UNC, with a M.Ed. and PhD. Her family moved into the area many years ago. She and the other residents appreciate the feel of "living in the woods" while being close to amenities.
Dangerous Motherhood is the first study of the close and complex relationship between mental disorder and childbirth. Exploring the relationship between women, their families and their doctors reveals how explanations for the onset of puerperal insanity were drawn from a broad set of moral, social and environmental frameworks, rather than being bound to ideas that women as a whole were likely to be vulnerable to mental illness. The horror of this devastating disorder which upturned the household, turned gentle mothers into disruptive and dangerous mad women, was magnified by it occurring at a time when it was anticipated that women would be most happy in the fulfillment of their role as mothers.