There are WAY too many cases in the past couple of months where children are getting injured or killed. WAY too many. Hello, Senators and Congressman???!!!!!! Are you seeing this? Are you beginning to understand the necessity for better treatment for and research into postpartum psychosis? Why are you still shuffling around? What is the problem?
I am absolutely incensed. Make a stand, Congress. Pass the MOTHERS Act so we don't lose any more women or children!!!!!!!!!!!
It's happening in Connecticut —
According to the Hartford Courant, "The young mother accused of stabbing her children early Saturday may have been suffering from postpartum psychosis, a respected Hartford psychiatrist speculated Sunday … Dr. Harold I. Schwartz, psychiatrist-in-chief at Hartford Hospital's Institute of Living, said … it is reasonable to assume that Carmela Ortiz, 22, was suffering from the rarest and most severe form of postpartum depression when, police say, she critically wounded her 2-year-old twins and 7-month-old baby … Ortiz used a knife to stab her three sons in their apartment … Police said the children were critically injured but are expected to survive … Postpartum psychosis does not happen suddenly, so there is time to intervene before a new mother hurts herself or her children, Schwartz said. One impediment to care has been that after a baby is born, doctors rarely ask new mothers about their frame of mind …"
It's happening in South Carolina —
From the Associated Press: "A mother accused of killing her twin sons has postpartum depression and should be released from jail to receive treatment, her attorney told a judge. Lakeia White, 20, was being held Friday on two counts of homicide by child abuse … Berkeley County sheriff's detectives said White admitted smothering her 9-month-old sons Devion and Trevon Wilson last month because they were crying and she didn't feel well." From the Charleston Post & Courier: "White already has been evaluated by a psychiatrist in Columbia and was subsequently admitted to the private facility Palmetto Lowcountry Behavioral Health in North Charleston for treatment. That was at Davis' behest, and he said doctors concluded that White had postpartum psychosis."
It's happening in California —
From the San Diego Union-Tribune: "Kristen Lawson, now 30, gave birth to her third child, a girl, five months ago. When news spread among Lawson's friends that she'd been arrested for trying to kill both daughters, everyone assumed, without being told, that she had been struck low by another postpartum episode. [She experienced postpartum depression with the birth of her first two children.] There was simply no other explanation for why Lawson – whom one friend calls 'the epitome of what a mom should be' – reportedly tried to drown the girls in a bathtub … Even the police say postpartum depression – or some sort of mental collapse – appears to be the culprit for Lawson's behavior." Thank God she didn't succeed, but now Ms. Lawson is forbidden from ever going near her children again.
Do something, Congress!
What can I do to help?
please get the facts of the cases before you post anything about Carmenla ortiz. There if more to this story, Carmenla could have gotten help if she was Really Depressed but she belived killing the kids would have made things better and it would deeply hurt my son which is what she wanted to do.. This case is not about postpartum She is just evil. She was evil before the children and thereafter… Peace and Love
My mother was a sufferer of postpartum depression and my father interviend before things went out of control. One of the days he showed up she had left me in the same diaper all day and was dancing around the house naked with the windows, blinds, and doors wide open. Another time she got completely drunk in a fight with him grabbed me threw me in the car with a diaper on and was threating to go kill me when my dad jumped in the car to stop her she drove around like a maniac with the windows down at 11:00pm at night and rode a cops ass until passing him and getting pulled over. The cop gave my dad the keys even though she was driving drunk and told my dad don't worry about it when he asked for her to be arrested. The last straw was finding me at her drug dealers house next to a pile of coke watching chucky, I know my mother did drugs but the doctors determined when she was in rehab that she was in fact suffering from this. I feel very lucky every time I hear about another case like this and it saddens me that they will not start taking action and making it manditory to have new mothers check in with a therapist or doctor for evaluation after the birth of the child or children.