As a person who suffered from postpartum depression (a much much milder case) last summer after my daughter was born…I can see how it could get so bad that you’d really lose it. Luckily, I had a support system through my coworkers, even though I was at home, and my family who recognized my symptoms and got me out of the house and well again. Now, I never once considered hurting myself or my kid. But the feelings of hopelessness and being overwhelmed got really ugly. Its more than just feeling blue all day. I had complications when my daughter was born, and had to have surgery a week later, so I was laid up and stuck in the house much longer than expected. After nine months of carrying a kid that you cant even leave the house to show off, its no wonder I was a mess.
All that said…there are plenty of support group and such available out there that could have helped this woman. I blame the husband. He had to have known she wasn’t right. I hope they help her, sterilize her, and let her out. The pain she must feel 24/7 from what she did is punishment enough.
Back when this case was “new”, a friend of mine wanted the government to kill her. He even offered to do it himself, irrespective of the courts calling for 40 years of prison time instead.
As a European, I said and still say that society should rather strive to cure our mentally ill, than to kill them.
What?! Oh yes, it should. I don’t care if she was mentally ill, or whatever, but I think you are exaggerating more than a little when you say it shouldn’t have bearing on it at all.
Like it or not, this woman is a mass murderer. Rational response? Yes, she is sick, and yes, she needs help - but that doesn’t mean releasing her so she can get pregnant again. Obviously some switches are loose and she needs to be supervised. Best way to do it? Tie her tubes so we don’t have to watch her constantly, and she can live the “free” life you think she deserves. No snarkiness, we just disagree on that point.
Emotional reponse? Kill the bitch. Yes, extreme - but all the bleeding hearts think about is her. Her making an error in judgement in traffic is miles and miles different from her chasing her kids all over the house to willfully drown them one at a time in the bathtub, and I find it sick that you should compare the two.
She should probably be institutionalized for the rest of her life. On one hand, I feel sorry for the fact that she’s mentally ill. On the other, both she and her husband KNEW this, were warned repeatedly by doctors for her to stay on her meds and NOT have another kid. Also, her husband had some major warning signs that this was going to happen.
What a fuck up. It’s too bad one can’t plead guilty yet insane.
I find it disturbing that anyone would want to “kill the bitch” (translation: execute an extremely mentally ill woman.) You use the term willfully as if that could apply to someone whose mind is lost in post-partum psychosis. It can happen to any woman. You never know.
Certainly she should be treated and separated from others for as long as her illness remains. And she should never have children again.
Sounds like her judgment had been impaired from previous births. Do you know what meds she was on? Just curious.
I’m with you, Rooves. I’ve worked in the social services field for some time now, and am familiar with mental illnesses and the drama and trauma they can create. That being said, regardless of the circumstances (PPD, depression, chemical imbalances, addiction, etc.) that “made” me do something like drown my kids, there’s absolutely no way in the world that even with treatment and the condiditon under control, could I live a “normal” life–nor would I want to do so.
I looked it up on Crime Library-it was Haldol, which was apparently the only thing that would work for her.
Either way, the whole thing could have been prevented-part of the problem was their religious beliefs. They believed it was “up to God”, women couldn’t work outside the house, homeschooling, etc. So while yes, her judgment wasn’t reliable, her husband should bear partial responbility, since he had warning signs that he just ignored. Okay, here we go. Some relevent information (I hope I’m not quoting too much, but it’s a very long article-some twenty pages worth):
So, I’m torn. I really do understand how sick she was. At the same time, there were so many warning signs, so many clues, so many chances that they IGNORED that it really pisses me off.
She’s completely bonkers. One of the forensic psychiatrists who interviewed her is associated with my uni and we did an entire unit on post-partum psychosis and I had to sit through hours of un-released video footage of this chick for my forensic psychiatry class. Although admittedly these were early interviews-don’t know about lately.
That’s exactly what the psychiatrist in my hometown said about the two women I mentioned. They do believe they are doing an act of love, whacky as that may seem.
If she did suffer from post-partum psychosis that woman does not belong in jail. She’s the 6th victim in this saga.
To me, the most compelling piece of evidence that shows Andrea Yates is insane is the fact that she’s still alive. No sane person could live with the knowledge that they’d killed their children.
Aren’t DP advocates always saying that the DP isn’t punishment, it’s a deterrent? I don’t see how killing Andrea Yates is much of a deterrent to other people. What’s the message, “don’t develop post-partum psychosis”? Do they think there’s a rash of women who are tearing down the door to kill their kids who are only being kept from it by the rule of law? The fact that there’s people who want her dead shows that people really don’t think it’s a deterrent, they just want to fry that “bitch.” Killing Andrea Yates will not keep one single person from murder.
I still can’t believe that her husband and family weren’t given jail time. If a parent puts a loaded gun in the same room with a child and the child shoots himself, the parent is liable. It’s the same thing here. He left five children home alone with an actively psychotic woman. He didn’t take the basic precautions to protect his children, such as hiring a nanny or nurse to be there when he could not. His actions were the equivalent of throwing his kids into a lion cage. It’s not the lion’s fault if it eats the kids, just like it isn’t Andrea’s fault for drowning hers. And so, the cycle of letting fathers off the hook while mothers (including under-medicated and under-supervised mentally ill ones) take all the blame continues.
If you read the article cited by Guinastasia you’ll see that she did try to kill herself after she had been put on medication and the enormity of her act dawned on her.
I wonder how many of the “fry her now!” crowd took the time to read the article. Even if the article is only 50% true you will leave with no doubt that Andrea Yates is really sick. Her husband failed her, her family failed her, the medial stablishment failed her and the best solution we can come up with is “fry her”.
There is not one person here who thinks ONLY about the mother. Of course it’s a horrible tragedy. However, it’s a huge stretch to say that she’s just out there getting knocked up. Religious extremism is at fault here, if you must point fingers. Her husband bought into it, she bought into it, and her mental illness kept her from seeing that she took the game too far.
We “bleeding hearts” understand what happened to the kids. But their mother cannot be held responsible for something that was done in a psychotic state. She is no more “at fault” than someone who unintentionally killed their kids in an accident. She was incapable of NOT killing them.
I think that you are way off base here. An accident is just that, an accident. Holding several kids under the water is not an accident - regardless of mental state.
Are women with post partum depression/psychosis more likely to suffer from regular depression/psychosis?
Willfully executing an extremely mentally ill person for an act done in the thows of physchosis is more henious and evil than the original act.
You need will to commit a crime. If she had killed them for the insurance, or to get back at her husband, or because she didn’t like them that would be one thing. But she killed them because she was totally nuts and thought satan was an active part of their household.
The worst part of this whole story is the part where the husband wasn’t put in jail for life. I’m sure our folks at the state prison in Huntsville would make him feel right at home. Andrea Yates was not competent to be left alone with kids EVER, and he knew it. He wouldn’t let her get the help she needed because apparently it goes against his god’s plan. Randy Yates is 100% responsible for all of it. I feel really bad for that woman, and she definitely doesn’t need to be out on her own. It sucks to be institutionalized, but it sucks more to be crazy enough to be able to drown five children.
If you haven’t experienced it, you have absolutely no idea how it takes complete control over you. For months I thought of nothing but killing my baby. Every time I took out a knife to cut up a chicken for dinner, I pictured cutting her up. Every time I gave her a bath, I thought about drowning her. If I was alone with her, I wanted to put my hand over her face and smother her. Obviously I didn’t do it, and that’s because I told my husband, my mother, my mother-in-law, and my doctor how I was feeling. I didn’t want anyone to LET me do it. I was sick and I only had the barest thread of control to which I clung with all my might.
The doctor put me on medication, and my mother-in-law took the baby as much as she could. I got a job working the same shift as my then-husband so that I was never alone with her. With everyone’s help, I got through it, and now I’m a damn good mother. However, I have made the choice to never have another child because it was like being in a nightmare 24 hours a day for months. I can’t go through that again. I might not make it through.
My point is that I would never in a million years understood how a woman could kill her kids unless I’d been through the hell that is post partum psychosis, so bless those of you who have not been through it but at least try to understand. I would have killed myself before I killed my baby (I’d even planned how I would do it), and I almost wish that Andrea had made that choice, too. But maybe it was different for her. No one but her will ever know what her hell was like. I just wish that she’d had the help and support that I had and I doubt this would ever have happened. She’d probably only have one kid and be living a normal life by now.