Psychiatrists hope the case brings attention to the need for better diagnosis and treatment for the illness. Postpartum mental health is at the forefront of a trial going on in Massachusetts. Lindsay Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murdering her three children in 2023, and her defense hinges on the dangerous condition known as postpartum psychosis.
Medical experts and women who have experienced this disorder say that this trial shows the need for more understanding and education. From member station WBUR, Deborah Becker reports. DEBORAH BECKER, BYLINE: In Clancy's trial this week, her healthcare providers testified about the medications she was prescribed and her deteriorating mental state.
Women who've struggled with postpartum psychosis say it's been difficult to hear. Meghan Cliffel was a new mom of two when her symptoms began. MEGHAN CLIFFEL: It's wild how quickly it happened, and also how, in my case, how logically I was acting but in a deluded reality.
BECKER: Cliffel was riding the subway home from her job in New York City in 2015 when her thoughts started to unravel. CLIFFEL: I went to sort of from feeling a little off all day to suddenly believing people were watching me. BECKER: She came to believe that a group was plotting to hurt her and her two daughters, who were 2 years and 8 months old.
CLIFFEL: So my brain is essentially taking all of these little details and knitting them together into this new alternate sense of terrifying truth wherein the entire city is out to get me and my girls. BECKER: It got worse when she got home. She thought the refrigerator was spewing poisonous gas and people on TV were threatening her.
Throughout, she thought she needed to protect her kids. CLIFFEL: My husband's got our two baby girls in our bedroom, and I punched him in the face trying to get to them. BECKER: At the same time, a sense of paranoia overcame her, and she tried to get to the roof of her apartment building.
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