Many mothers suffer from postpartum anxiety, depression, or even psychosis, and on multiple occasions, these people have ended up harming or even killing their children because the lack of concern regarding these issues is so high. 

Helping these women with problems that are so incredibly visible is necessary to prevent these occurrences from happening but nothing ever seems to change. On multiple occasions, Postpartum anxieties, depression, and psychosis have led to suicides or the deaths of children because help is not given or just plain isn’t working. Cases such as Emily Dyches, Carol Coronado, and Lindsay Clancy are just a few of them that ended in tragedies. Illnesses like PPP affect a person’s sense of reality, causing symptoms such as delusions, and paranoia, it can all around greatly affect everyday moods. 

Lindsay Clancy is one of the more extreme cases, Lindsay is 32, the mother of three, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and seven-month-old Callan. Lindsay is said to suffer from Postpartum Psychosis and is facing two counts of murder charges as well as others for killing all three of her children and attempting to kill herself. Her lawyer gave the plea of not guilty because of her mental problems. A quote from an article in Newsweek stated, “ Reddington, who has said that he plans an insanity defense, portrayed his client as a woman struggling with mental illness.” Kevin J. Reddington, Lindsay’s lawyer, shared that she has been prescribed at least a dozen different psychiatric medications to treat things from anxiety to insomnia. 

Another argument could state that she was completely sane and knew exactly what she was doing while committing the crimes. They could continue to state that she had plenty of time to think it through and even claim it to be premeditated. That argument could branch to the dozens of other cases of women who have made it this far with these illnesses.  

These accusations can be proven wrong by looking into the statements made before and after the crimes. Lindsay has been said to have shown little to no remorse for what she did which is extremely strange for her being the mother. To claim that she was completely sane while committing these heinous acts would be ludicrous. Lindsay as well as every other mother who has suffered from these same illnesses has spent prior years loving and being loved by these children. These mothers have asked countless times for help because of these feelings and the symptoms have either been missed or have gone untreated.

Having proper and thorough psychological evaluations as well as looking into if the treatment methods are truly working could be the first steps in helping to stop these tragedies. They don’t go seeking help or send signs for nothing, but a lot of the time the signs are missed and things escalate. To hold a person accountable for their actions, it first needs to be proven that they were completely aware of said actions at the time. 

Will that be the case for these women, it is up to a jury to decide.