As the Clancy case highlights postpartum psychosis, a mom stricken by it shares her story of hope

About two weeks after giving birth, Bridget María Chesterton was curled up on the bathroom floor, saying things that made little sense. Later, in the emergency room, she kept repeating, “What’s going on?” She’d lost touch with reality. The family eventually learned that Chesterton had postpartum psychosis, a severe mental health disorder thrust into the spotlight by the case of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts woman on trial for strangling her three children.

A key question is whether postpartum psychosis drove Clancy to do it. Researchers estimate that the condition — a mental health emergency that is less common than postpartum depression — afflicts 1 to 2 out of 1,000 women after delivery. Although most who develop postpartum psychosis don’t harm their children, mothers with severe cases may try to harm themselves or their kids.

If not for medication and strong family support, Chesterton said her own situation “could have gone sideways.” Chesterton bristles at online comments about the Clancy case suggesting postpartum psychosis is not a real disorder. She feels driven to raise awareness by sharing her story publicly; a poem she wrote about the experience will be published in a journal in the fall. She wants to dispel misconceptions about the widely misunderstood condition — and let families know there is hope.

“It’s something that we do not talk about as a society,” said Chesterton, a 52-year-old history professor who lives outside Buffalo, New York. “I’m not embarrassed about what happened. I want people to know about it.” A mom was fine at first, then ‘in bad shape’ Chesterton and her husband James Fitzsimmons wanted a baby desperately and underwent fertility treatment for years.

She finally got pregnant in her mid-40s and had severe asthma during the pregnancy that put her in the hospital. She gave birth to her daughter by C-section in January 2019, about two months early. “Everything about bringing her into the world was awful,” Chesterton said.

“It was the longest seven months of my life.” Just after the birth, the baby was hurried off to the neonatal intensive care unit, where she spent her first weeks of life. To protect the child’s privacy, The Associated Press is withholding her name at the family’s request. ___ EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide.