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This discourse was in full swing at the peak of Lindsay Clancy's very public trial. She was charged with murdering her three small children in 2023. However, one aspect of the case that fueled the conversation about the barriers women face when seeking care was Clancy's postpartum psychosis condition—a rare but severe illness that affects a woman's sense of reality after she has given birth. During the trial, it was revealed that the care she received for her illness was not enough, and that she had repeatedly sought psychiatric help for severe anxiety. However, the clinicians assessed her as a low safety risk, ultimately leaving her psychosis undiagnosed, worsening her condition.
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These revelations led to calls for improvement in postpartum mental health care, so that women are not left alone suffering with these conditions. According to several studies, postpartum depression affects 10% of new mothers, whereas postpartum psychosis affects moms in an estimated 1-2 out of every 1,000 births. And 66% of women are more likely to be medically misdiagnosed than men.
English (US) 