About two weeks after giving birth, Bridget María Chesterton was found curled up on her bathroom floor, confused and saying things that made little sense. Hours later, in an emergency room, she repeatedly asked, “What’s going on?” At one point, her family said she did not even remember having a baby. Chesterton was eventually diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, a rare but serious psychiatric emergency that has received renewed attention during the murder trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy.
A central issue in that case is whether Clancy was experiencing the condition when she killed her three children. Researchers estimate postpartum psychosis affects about 1 to 2 people per 1,000 births. Most people who develop it do not harm their children, but severe cases can carry risks of harm to the mother or baby.
Chesterton, now 52 and a history professor living outside Buffalo, New York, said medication and extraordinary family support helped her recover. She is sharing her experience because she is troubled by claims online that postpartum psychosis is not real. I want people to know about it.” Chesterton and her husband, James Fitzsimmons, had undergone years of fertility treatment before she became pregnant in her mid-40s.
After a difficult pregnancy complicated by severe asthma, she delivered her daughter by C-section in January 2019, about two months prematurely. The baby was taken to a neonatal intensive care unit, where she remained for weeks. Chesterton initially appeared well after returning home.
Then her behavior abruptly changed. Her husband found her on the bathroom floor struggling to remember basic details and making unusual comments. At the hospital, her mother, Maria Chesterton, realized how severely her daughter’s condition had deteriorated.
In a journal article on the subject in 2023, researchers at the Medical University of Lublin in Poland said about half of people with postpartum psychosis have a previous history of psychiatric problems and the most common risk factor associated with the condition is bipolar affective disorder, which causes extreme mood swings. Though most people with postpartum psychosis don’t harm their children, mothers with severe cases may try to do so, and also may try to harm themselves. Experts say it’s important to seek immediate help if you or your partner or family member show signs of postpartum psychosis.
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