Word: postpartum
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Postpartum mental disorders are so far poorly understood. Psychiatrists debate whether they are distinct forms of depression or psychosis. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (III), the profession's bible, does not list postpartum problems separately. No one is exactly sure what causes these mental conditions, but both physical and psychological explanations have been suggested. "A woman is undergoing a tremendous hormonal upheaval around the time of childbirth," says Nancy Reame, a women's health researcher at the University of Michigan. During pregnancy, estrogen and progesterone increase a thousandfold, then abruptly drop to normal or sometimes below normal...
Medical treatment for the entire gamut of postpartum disorders, from depression to psychotic episodes, has become quite effective. It may include medication, hospitalization, electroconvulsive therapy and counseling. Some women, including those who have experienced problem pregnancies or have a family history of mental illness, are thought to be at higher risk of developing postpartum trouble. Preventive injections of progesterone ; immediately after birth may be suggested for women who have suffered from depression after a previous birth...
...often, though, the problem goes undetected. Women now leave hospitals within three days of delivery, well before most postpartum difficulty arises. Husbands and doctors frequently fail to appreciate the gravity of the illness. Sharon Comitz, a Pennsylvania pharmaceutical clerk who dropped her month-old son from a bridge into a mountain stream, had previously been hospitalized for depression after the birth of a daughter. Yet when she came home with her new son, her husband Glenn recalls, "I didn't realize it, but she was just going through the motions. She would bathe the baby in the kitchen but would...
Despite their anguish, most husbands remain steadfastly supportive of their wives, regarding them as temporarily insane and not responsible for their actions. But as a legal defense, insanity as a result of postpartum mental illness is not a surefire success. While some women, including Thompson, Remington and Bartek, have received sympathetic hearings on such grounds and gone free, others have been sent to prison. Householder spent 22 months in jail; Comitz is now serving an eight-to-20-year sentence. Both women had told police complex kidnaping stories. Comitz had so completely convinced herself of the truth of her alibi...
...preventing tragedies lies in the education of both the public and health-care professionals. Mothers who have experienced postpartum distress have started support groups; Depression after Delivery, based in Yardley, Pa., has 14 chapters around the country. Families that have suffered the most devastating loss are trying to contribute too. Thompson's husband Jeff is lobbying California legislators for a bill that will enable women accused of infanticide to remain in custody at a hospital. The couple has found the courage to go on and lead a normal life: in May 1987, four years after killing her baby, Thompson gave...