POSTARTUM

The grim details were shocking. Andrea Yates, a 37-year-old Houston housewife, drowned each one of her five children in the family bathtub this past June. When arrested, she told police officers that she murdered the children because they suffered damages by her “bad mothering.”
Yates pleaded not guilty, and medical experts are claiming mental illness could have been the cause.
Many people were outraged about news of the crime. “I don’t care how crazy they say she was,” said Calvarese Bacchus, a senior Business major from Harvey. “A person with any kind of sense knows what they’re doing while they’re killing children.”
While many others share these same sentiments, there are those who are baffled by the bizarre circumstances of the crime. Many wonder what could have been going through Yates’ mind at the time? And what kind of mental sickness would cause a mother to murder all of her children?
The mental disorder Yates claimed to be suffering from is called postpartum psychosis.
“Frequently after women go through childbirth, there could be a lot of hormonal imbalances which can cause disturbances in personality,” replied Dr. Myrna Lane, associate professor of the Southern University psychology department. “The less serious level people go through what’s called postpartum depression. On a more severe level they can go through a point where they experience psychotic symptoms,”
As many as 80 percent of women suffer minor mood changes or “baby blues” after giving birth. Only about ten percent to 22 percent suffer from postpartum depression. The most severe postpartum disorder occurs in about one out of every thousand women who give birth. The onset is sudden, and it usually occurs within the first two to three weeks after childbirth.
There are many symptoms and signs that point to postpartum. “We’re talking about loss of contact with reality,” said Lane. “We’re talking about things like severe depression where they can’t function.”
Sufferers may experience hallucinations and delusions (usually religious), extreme anxiety and agitation, and suicidal or homicidal thoughts. “They may even hear voices,” replied Lane.
While there is still a great deal of information to be collected by medical researchers about postpartum psychosis, it is a treatable mental disorder. The prognosis is also good, when detected as early as possible.