Maternal Mental Health-The neglect

Lindsay Clancy’s murder case that ended to be a mistrial was in the headlines since the social
media hype around it gathered much momentum in the past few days. For the readers who might
have missed this news coverage, Lindsay Clancy, a US citizen was charged with alleged murder
of her three children in 2023 followed by her failed suicide attempt. She pleaded not guilty in the
court on the pretext of suffering from postpartum psychosis since the birth of her third child. The
defense counsel presented the evidence of her disease and ongoing treatment in the court.
However, the prosecutor’s claim was hinged on her ill intent since she managed to commit the
murders in the absence of her husband, all intentionally. However, the verdict was a mistrial as
none of the jurors could get to a unanimous decision on whether Lindsay should be convicted of
murders or not owed to her mental illness.
The social media uproar around this case was also divided into two factions. One group was
inclined towards punishing the woman for killing the children while other was advocating for her
release on the premise of being a victim to mental illness. Regardless of the greyness of this case,
the entire buzz of this trial has raised some serious questions about maternal mental health and
the criminal neglect attached to it. In our society, the taboo attached with depression is well
established. The discourse about depression in general and post-partum depression in specific is
almost non-existent in the major chunk of our society. In fact, the most developed parts of our
societal strata consider depression as an excuse to detach from reality. Despite clinically proven
findings about depression, our people do not consider it as a treatable mental illness. In such a

scenario, how could we think about baby blues, post-partum depression, and post-partum
psychosis as serious concerns affecting our women? Surely, we need to spread awareness about
it. For people who do not know about these terminologies, baby blues is a mild condition that
may affect up to 3 in 4 women during pregnancy and most likely post-partum (after giving birth).
This may present as mood swings, irritability, anxiety, stress, non-attachment with the baby,
insomnia etc. The baby blues may resolve on its own within 2 to 7 days post-partum. Whereas, a
more intense form of this condition is called as post-partum depression which may affect up to 1
in 7 women. The symptoms of this condition are more severe than the former and if aggravated it
may trigger suicidal tendencies in rare occurrences. Although it may last for several months but
the symptoms of this illness may resolve with treatment. Treatment often involves either
medication (mostly mood stabilizers) or counselling. In a layman’s language both baby blues and
post-partum depression can be called as mood disorders triggered by hormonal changes among
other factors. For example, the physical and mental stress that the female body go through all
stages of pregnancy and post–partum recovery make her susceptible to such conditions
altogether.
The post-partum psychosis is a severe form of post-partum depression affecting up to 1 in 1000
women. This mental illness is gravest of the three, making hallucinations, and suicidal tendencies
most likely in this case. The feeling of inflicting harm to not only yourself but others also could
be an eventuality in these patients’ course of action. The treatment options may vary from person
to person based on the severity and stages of this illness. However, the entire point of penning
down this opinion piece is to make people understand the reality of post-partum maternal health
issues that our women may experience in life. To put things into perspective, even a simple
pregnancy and post-partum could trigger an episode of bipolar depression in a woman that may
have genetically inherited bipolar depression as a trait. This has also been clinically proven that
even if the trait is recessive, it may become dominant owed to the stress caused by delivery. Not
to mention the complications associated with bipolar depression, it could really be a curse for the
patients and their families as they navigate through it for long.
Hence, it is imperative to underscore the significance of maternal health in general and maternal
mental health in specific while formulating public health policies affecting 50% of our
population. For a starter, the couple should be guided properly in this regard. Proper tests should

be conducted before family planning to ensure both neonatal and maternal health. With proper
remedial steps in place, all the mood disorders can be treated before transforming into much
severe mental illnesses. As the saying goes, prevention is better than treatment, all the actions
aimed at prevention should be backed by proper research and medical intervention. With proper
maternal healthcare in place, we can break the vicious cycle of mood disorder and its
consequences affecting new mothers and their families alike.