Word: postpartum
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...Isabelle gets pregnant again, the national social security system will cover the bulk of her prenatal, delivery and postpartum expenses. She is guaranteed a six-month paid maternity leave, two months longer than for each of her prior pregnancies, to cover the added responsibilities of an expanding family. In the third month of her pregnancy, Isabelle will begin to accrue monthly benefits, eventually totaling $343, to defray the cost of another infant. If Isabelle decides not to return to work, she will get $563 in "parental education benefits" to reward her decision to stay home. If she does return...
...most tempting diagnosis is postpartum depression, the paradoxical melancholy that settles in after a supreme act of human fulfillment. What follows, Peggy Lee once explained, is the "Is that all there is?" syndrome. For two generations we lived with the expectation that if we could only end the endless twilight struggle with the Soviet Empire, if we could only turn from swords to plowshares, if we could only climb down from J.F.K.'s ramparts of freedom, life would be rosy. Peace dividend. Nuclear tranquillity. National repose. Rewards for all the sacrifices endured, for all the gratification deferred for 45 years...
...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...