# This woman won't be winning any "Mother of the Year" awards **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 23, 2004, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376 "2004-11-23T23:11:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376/21 "2004-11-24T16:02:13Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > I agree. I think it’s the ignorant attitude toward mental illness in this country that allows things like this to happen. Maybe if this woman would have received proper care in the first place this wouldn’t have happened. But no, it’s a lot easier to slash medical services and then blame the mother, who as far as I’m concerned is a victim too. This woman should have never been left alone with the child, at least without a neighbor checking in on her every hour or so. The father should have realized that. > > It’s just a terrible situation all around. While there are, no doubt, situations that fit your description, this doesn’t seem like one of them. The woman got help (one article stated up to 9 months of therapy). The father was checking up. He got Day Care to check in, and it was the Day Care center who contacted 911 who contacted the woman. Sometimes, you can’t predict the unpredictable. To try to lay the blame at anyone’s feet is futile. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376/22 "2004-11-24T23:07:32Z")
> [@KellyM](#): > > Obviously Texas has inadequate mental health support services. Gee, whodathunkit? > > Compassionate conservatism in action. IMHO, the fathers in at least some of these cases bear some if not equal responsibility. In the yates case for instance, what was it 5 kids, and a newborn? And the dad was told to get her help and OFFERED help, but it was “no, she’ can handle it, it’s her duty” kind of attitude. The case in Tyler (I think it was Tyler, it was one of the cases they televised on Court TV recently) involved the mother actually waking her kids up, asking them to come downstairs to the garden, and to lay their heads upon a rock for her, whereupon she took another rock and smashed their little heads in. Very chilling, but it was a similar case, she’d had many episodes of breaks with reality prior to that time. And her husband just shrugged it off “oh, she’s fine, just a little blue, she always does that, after all that’s a woman’s job”. And so on. The mentality in Texas regarding men’s and women’s roles are doing both the mom’s and the dad’s a disservice, they seem to be operating about two centuries behind the rest of the country and relying on “God’s will” rather than the sense God GAVE them. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376/23 "2004-11-25T08:26:54Z")
I don’t know the circumstances enough to know whether the father holds equal responsibility here. Depressive illness, even _very serious_ depressive illness can be hidden from others, especially family members. Mum may seem to be fine, going about her day to day business, and apparently caring for the children quite well. She may seem a little ‘down’, but that happens to all mums when they are tired out from the tasks of caring for young kids. If all new dads ran to the doctor when their partners were feeling tired and blue, there would be a national epidemic happening. It’s just a bloody tragedy, and as **D\_Odds** noted, sometimes there’s just no-one to blame. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376/24 "2004-11-25T08:40:02Z")
I don’t know, but I’ve been told that post-patum depression wreaks havoc with the mind. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376/25 "2004-11-25T09:43:23Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > What is it with Texas and post partum depression moms who lose it? > > This is the third mom in, what five years, to kill her child. Yates, the lady from Dallas area, and now just outside of Dallas in Plano. It’s Texas, for pete’s sake. I’ve lived here three years and I think about snapping and going on a rampage prolly 2-3 times a week. I don’t even have PPD! I mean…you got the depression of the knowledge you live in freakin _Texas_, then you add postpartum depression on top of that, sooner or later someone’s gonna snap. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376/26 "2004-11-25T09:51:18Z")
While reading stories like this make me really angry too, she _is_ mentally ill. (Though I certainly don’t think she should get off scot-free either) Postpartum depression can be _really_ serious stuff, and as evidenced in the article, can produce _extreme_ psychotic episodes in the worst cases. It’s pretty rare that postpartum depression produces psychotic episodes, especially of that magnitude, but, sadly, it happens. [http://www.currentpsychiatry.com/2002\_05/05\_02\_postpartum.asp](http://www.currentpsychiatry.com/2002_05/05_02_postpartum.asp) > [@](#): > > Psychotic depression in the postpartum period is sometimes associated with chronic mood disorders, especially untreated depression. The most prevalent psychotic features include paranoid delusions that incorporate the newborn. Hallucinations are rare. Psychotic depression places the postpartum patient at a heightened risk for suicide and/or infanticide and is considered a medical emergency that requires immediate hospitalization and treatment to ensure the safety of the infant and the ill mother. > > If a patient with psychotic PPD is experiencing delusions centered on harming her infant, a family member or members should assume responsibility for the child’s care, and the patient should not be left alone with the infant. When the mother is hospitalized, visitation between the mother and infant should be restricted, particularly if the infant’s presence precipitates anxiety in the mother. The goal of hospitalization is to achieve symptom remission and stability in the mother so that bonding and attachment can occur. Maternal-infant bonding is difficult, if not impossible, if the mother is out of touch with reality. symptoms can include: > [@](#): > > -hyperactivity > -increased rate of speech > -delusions > -paranoia > -extreme confusion > -hallucinations > -extreme depression Found a more thorough site explaining the psychosis part of PPD a bit more. Warning, it’s a .pdf file [http://www.psych.org/public\_info/postpartumdepression111401.pdf](http://www.psych.org/public_info/postpartumdepression111401.pdf) > [@](#): > > Postpartum Depression: About one in 10 new mothers experience some degree of postpartum depression. These episodes that are characterized by command hallucinations to kill the infant, but it can also occur in severe postpartum mood episodes without such specific delusions or hallucinations. > > · The risk of postpartum episodes with psychotic features is particularly increased for women with prior postpartum mood episodes, but elevated for those with a history of mood disorders. Once a woman has a postpartum episode with psychotic features, the risk of recurrence is 30-50% with each delivery. > > · There is a subset of women who experience postpartum psychotic episodes that may include infanticide. This is characterized by hallucinations by the new mother to kill the infant, or delusions that the infant might be possessed. PPD can exhibit itself even up to a year after a birth. (although I do sometimes wonder if it ain’t something in the water down here, this part o’Texas sure does seem to get more than it’s fair share of really violent cases.) ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376/27 "2004-11-25T12:06:21Z")
I heard her 911 call on the radio yesterday. Very chilling. She’s very calm, almost detached, in response to the 911 operator’s questions. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376/28 "2004-11-25T13:21:33Z")
Poor woman. That’s just so sad. Does Texas allow a plea of diminished responsibility? If she’s not pleading not guilty by reason of insanity, can she plead guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to murder because of diminished responsibility? If that’s possible, and if I was a lawyer who wanted to spare my client from the media circus that this trial will become, that’s what I’d do. In the mean time I hope she’s somewhere safe where she can be given the care and treatment she needs. I hope that if/when she recovers, she’ll get help to deal with the guilt, rather than punishment for an act she’ll probably never forgive herself for anyway. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376/29 "2004-11-25T13:24:14Z")
Oh yes, flattened affect (appearing blank, cold and numb) and expressionless, monotone speech are characteristic of psychotic illnesses such as Schizophrenia. The “chilling” phone call could be evidence that she was not in her right mind. ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376/30 "2004-11-26T02:31:27Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > I don’t know, but I’ve been told that post-patum depression wreaks havoc with the mind. Absolutely. I wasn’t even on the severe end of the spectrum, but after my second child was born, I went into a fairly deep depression. I vividly remember standing over his crib as he screamed, and being completely unable to pick him up and take care of him. I just stood there, crying and saying, “I don’t know how to help you.” Even though I DID, of course–he was my second child, and I was (or should have been) an old hand at this parenting thing. I also remember how, every time my older son walked into the room, I had this almost irresistable urge to just grab him and shake him until his teeth rattled. There were times when I had to lock myself in the bathroom to keep from doing it–my hands ACHED to do it, I could see it in my head, I dreamed about it. I wanted to hurt him, plain and simple, as much as it kills me to admit it now. When I hear of stories like this, I wonder, how far was I from doing something horrid? What if I’d had no family to turn to, if my doctor hadn’t listen to me, if I had been just a few degrees crazier to begin with before I hit that lonely stretch of road? It’s a terrifying thought. Poor sweet baby. Poor sick woman. My heart breaks for them both. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-woman-wont-be-winning-any-mother-of-the-year-awards/276376.md?page=1)