PPD and Infanticide
Posted
October 9, 2006 at
9:12 am by
Andrea
I’m not sure how far news of this has spread, but recently a young mother in Barrie was accused of killer her toddler and infant daughters. It has launched the usual firestorm of controversy: What is postpartum depression? How much is a PPD sufferer responsible for their actions? How much is her family and/or partner responsible for not recognizing it and taking steps to prevent such an act?
?‚? According to an article in the Toronto Star (I promise; I do read other newspapers) not only is Post-Partum Psychosis incredibly rare, afflicting only one out of 500 or 1000 postpartum women, but of those women only about five per cent will go on to attempt to harm their children. What will tip that small percentage over the line?
?‚? One stressor that doesn’t get enough attention, he says, is sleep disruption. Lack of support is also a factor.
“I can’t underestimate (the importance of) the environment or circumstances,” says Brizendine.
What may send a woman predisposed to depression or bipolar disease down one path rather than another after childbirth, she says, is support from husband and family or lack of it.
I can’t tell you how happy I was to see an article that mentioned motherhood itself–the sleep disruption, change in role and extra work–as a significant stressor in and of itself. When Frances was born one month early and with reflux disease so severe I couldn’t put her down for the twelve hours of each day my husband was at work, when she woke every forty-five minutes at night for weeks on end, refused to nap unless in physical contact with me, and refused bottles, to be told that the resulting strain and depression were due to hormones was insulting and infuriating.
?‚? If only they had stopped the article there, and I’d never read this:
?‚? Symptoms of postpartum mental illness include changes in behaviour or personality and inattention to personal hygiene or household organization.
?‚? Household organization? Household organization?
?‚? Then we must all be ill, because I don’t know a single woman whose household remained organized after the arrival of a new baby.
Tags: post-partum-depression, Social Issues |
3 Responses to “PPD and Infanticide”
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1. Jessica Carlson said:
October 9, 2006 @ 10:19 am
Who told you that your PPD was simply hormonal and nothing else?
My PPD definitely was hormonal, coupled with sleep deprivation (and I had a super-preemie who didn’t sleep for 2 years, had reflux and came home on a heart monitor, so I can relate). Fortunately, I had great doctors who agreed that the sleep deprivation with both of my kids was a major factor. In fact, the first one wouldn’t treat me until I got my sleep under control.
I still don’t believe that you go from “normal” before kids and wind up killing or harming your kids just because you’re tired, or don’t have family. I had neither and never considered harming my children. I wonder how many have severe psychosis BEFORE they have kids, and if so, there has to be some personal responsibility there. You have to wonder if they were ever lucid enough to know that having more kids was a bad idea and how their families didn’t recognize it.
2. CrankMama said:
October 11, 2006 @ 6:23 pm
What I don’t understand (& this goes for that Amish child murderer) is that even if one is ‘psychotic’.. why couldn’t you at least CALL someone before murdering your kids?? Why couldn’t you just leave them home alone and go get help?
I worked with chronically mentally ill adults of the psychotic variety in my early 20s and even those folks could utilize reason quite frequently to stop themselves from harming others.
I do not get it.
And I agree with you, Andrea, if “household disorganization” is a sign of mental illness, then I think we’re ALL more ‘off’ than we realized.
3. thordora said:
October 25, 2006 @ 4:32 pm
I’d be curious to know how many cases of PPD we’d see in settings where there is a strong familiar support system, i.e. aunts, sisters, mothers around to assume the household burdens…
And by the household disorganization, I think they might mean to the extreme. With my ppd, I was barely able to clean the children properly, let alone the house. Stuff piled around me, things started to smell, etc. Stuff that even in previous depressed states that would have bothered me didn’t do a thing.
It took my family took push me back from the edge of no return. I would have never called without their help. I can’t imagine not having someone around when it all goes bad.