08/21/2026
POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS: LET’S TALK ABOUT IT
Is Postpartum Psychosis Real?
The trial of Lindsay Clancy has created a difficult but necessary conversation about postpartum psychosis. Her defense maintains that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis when she killed her three children in January 2023. Prosecutors argue that her actions were deliberate and that she understood what she was doing. Whichever side you take, isn’t the focus here but rather bringing awareness to this topic.
To answer the first question: Yes. Postpartum psychosis is a real and serious psychiatric condition. It is also rare, affecting approximately one or two mothers out of every 1,000 births.
Postpartum psychosis is not the same as the “baby blues,” postpartum depression, or postpartum anxiety.
Normal hormonal shifts after delivery may include crying, irritability, and feeling overwhelmed, but typically these resolve within a couple of weeks. Postpartum depression can cause persistent sadness, hopelessness, guilt, loss of interest, difficulty bonding, and sometimes thoughts of death or su***de.
Postpartum psychosis affects a person’s ability to accurately understand reality. Symptoms may include:
• Hallucinations
• Delusions or fixed false beliefs
• Paranoia
• Severe confusion
• Disorganized thinking or behavior
• Mania or extreme agitation
• Rapid mood changes
• An inability to sleep
Symptoms can develop quickly and may change significantly from one hour or day to the next. A loved one may appear relatively calm at one point and become confused, fearful, suspicious, or disconnected from reality later.
Postpartum psychosis is treatable but it requires psychiatric care which includes medication. It is not a character flaw, a lack of maternal love, or an excuse someone simply invents after hurting someone or themselves.
Tomorrow we will discuss possibly the most confusing parts of psychosis: Can someone know that a thought is not real and later become completely convinced that it is?
