Like a lot of people in the country, I've been following the Lindsay Clancy trial.
My reasons are twofold:
1) To see how the evidence presented by the prosecution and the defense affects the verdict, which will come in the next few days (as of this writing), because the prosecution and defense have given their closing arguments, and
2) I have been personally affected by severe. postpartum psychosis in my own family.
A few months after I was born, my biological mother, who was in her early 40s, began having symptoms very similar to those that were described in the Lindsay Clancy trial, according to my two sisters. My older sister was 16 years old when I was born; and my sister, Josephine, who passed away last March, was 9 years old. They remembered the changes in my mother, and years later told me about the chaos that ensued as she became more and more depressed, disturbed, and disassociative.
Not much was known or even discussed about postpartum depression back then, and so the symptoms my mother presented were considered to be severe mental illness. According to my sisters, my mother never tried to harm me, but the family story is that one day as she was pushing me in the baby carriage in a city very near Boston, she left me in the carriage on railroad tracks near our home. A neighbor recognized the carriage and me and brought me home. My mother had no memory of this. As a result of this and other too painful to report incidents, she was hospitalized in a state mental health facility, and did not come home until 15 years later. Two years after her hospitalization and the report by the doctors who said she'd never recover, my father divorced her and remarried.
I'm being brief here and holding back some information to protect my family. I was able to access the hospital records recently, and read the reports of her treatment by the doctors and nurses as well as the medications she took. She was given electric shock therapy and the drug Thorazine, among many others. She had recovered enough to be able to leave the mental facility and live with my older sister's family, where, at the age of 14 years old, I met her for the first time in person. My father and step-mother kept her existence a secret from me until I was 12 years old. I never bonded with her, because she never really knew who I was, and my sisters told me she was never the same woman after the onset of her illness and her release from the mental health facility. I was 15 months old when we were separated from each other.
My second encounter with postpartum psychosis was shortly after the birth of my 3rd grandchild and first granddaughter.
My daughter-in-law had told my son, her mother, and me that she was unable to sleep. This started in the hospital after she gave birth, and continued when she came home with my granddaughter. And it continued for many weeks and months. My daughter-in-law became disoriented, depressed, anxious, panicky, and despondent because she was unable to sleep and take care of her newborn. Never did we think she'd hurt the baby.
I spent time at their apartment to help out, and took over the night feedings so she could try to get some sleep. At the same time, they were moving from their apartment in a suburb of Boston to their new home being built close to her hometown in New York. My daughter-in-law and my son thought it would be best for her and my granddaughter to temporarily move in with her parents while I helped my son pack up their apartment and so she could receive medical care near to where her parents lived.
One morning as I was packing things in the kitchen after my son had left to go to work in Boston, I got a call from my daughter-in-law's father. My daughter-in-law had purposefully taken an overdose of sleeping pills and had been rushed to the hospital. If her parents had not found her when they did, she would have died.
It took months of therapy and hospitalizations and electric shock therapy for her to fully recover, but, thankfully, she did. She has very little memory of that horrible time in her life. Between her mother and me, we were able to care for my granddaughter and keep her safe.
These two very personal, very painful times I experienced in my life are the reasons I am so invested in the outcome of the Lindsay Clancy trial.
My personal belief is that Clancy was not mentally capably of knowing what she was doing when she killed her children. I’ve followed the trial, the evidence presented, and the closing arguments. I was also a victim of what a postpartum psychosis/illness can do to a family. I lost my mother because of it, and found out years later that she had had an underlying bipolar condition. Studies have revealed that a mother with an underlying bipolar illness can suffer severe postpartum psychosis. Luckily, this was not the case for my daughter-in-law. She had a second high risk pregnancy, but the outcome, a baby boy, was normal and she had no postpartum anxieties or other symptoms like she suffered with my granddaughter.
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From my research:
Baby blues (Minor): Affects 50% to 80% of new mothers; involves mild tearfulness, mood swings, and anxiety that resolve within two weeks without formal treatment.
Postpartum Depression (Moderate): Affects 10% to 15% of women; involves persistent sadness, loss of interest, and bonding difficulties lasting past two weeks.
Postpartum Anxiety and OCD: Affects roughly 8% to 17% of postpartum women; involves intense, intrusive worries or compulsive behaviors.
Postpartum Psychosis (Severe): Affects 1 to 2 per 1,000 deliveries (0.1%); features sudden hallucinations, delusions, extreme confusion, and rapid mood swings, usually appearing within the first two weeks.
Postpartum psychosis (PPP) is a mental health emergency. This condition affects a person’s sense of reality, causing hallucinations, delusions, paranoia or other behavior changes. In severe cases, people with PPP may attempt to harm themselves or their newborn. This condition is treatable, and early treatment increases the odds of a good outcome.
What is postpartum psychosis? Postpartum psychosis (PPP) is a reversible — but severe — mental health condition that affects people after they give birth. This condition is rare, but it’s also dangerous
Who does postpartum psychosis affect?
Postpartum psychosis can affect anyone who recently gave birth. While it usually happens within several days of giving birth, it can happen up to six weeks after. It can happen to anyone who gives birth, but the odds of having it are higher for people with certain mental health conditions.
While experts don’t know if these conditions contribute to or cause PPP, they do know that there’s a link.
How common is postpartum psychosis? Postpartum psychosis is a rare condition. Experts estimate that it affects between 0.089 and 2.6 out of every 1,000 births. In the United States, that means it happens in between 320 and 9,400 births each year. Globally, that means it happens in between 12 million and 352.3 million births.
Mood changes, such as mania (an increase in activity and mood) and hypomania, or depression (a decrease in mood). Depersonalization (some people describe this as an out-of-body experience). Disorganized thinking or behavior. Insomnia. Irritability or agitation. Thoughts of self-harm or harming others (especially their newborn). History of mental health conditions. About one-third of people with PPP have a previously diagnosed mental health condition. The most common include bipolar disorder (especially bipolar I disorder). Other mental health conditions that may increase the risk include major depressive disorder and schizophrenia spectrum conditions.
