Hey, guys!

Having been pregnant myself, and having had a couple of wrestling matches with PPD, let me give you a little perspective.

We are talking about serious chemical imbalances here. Added to the "normal" stress of a new infant in the house -- disrupted routines, sleep deprivation, isolation from social contacts (especially work-related ones), one can go truly nuts. Think about the weird drug-related reactions people have sometimes. Now imagine the dosage is internal, involuntary and not understood.

Not having looked up the stats, I'm not armed with the numbers on the times the PPD defense has been used in Europe. I venture to suggest that this is less a license to kill infants and more a recognition of a mental condition, one that is treatable. Treatment allows a woman to resume a productive, if not normal, life. She will always know, afterwards, that she has killed her baby. Lest anyone think that she has "gotten away with" something.

The questions I have revolve around the support that is so obviously absent for new mothers. There were alarm bells ringing in this tragic case long before the crimes were committed. Does her husband have a brain? Who was there to help this woman as she descended slowly into psychosis?

Why isn't there more follow-up care for new mothers? (There's plenty available for infants, but routine post-partum care for women is limited to the traditional 6-week resume-normal-activities visit.) Why isn't there more education at the high school level -- the last place we can get everybody's attention -- about the effects of PPD? Ignorance is deadly. Why is mental illness treated like leprosy, so that people are too ashamed or afraid to recognize it for the disease it is and seek treatment for it?

Also, I wonder what the suicide stats are for new mothers with PPD. As my daughter once observed, "When girls are crazy, they're more likely to kill themselves." Do we care how wide-spread this condition is? Or does it only matter when children die?

Andrea Yates didn't wake up one morning and decide that all her children had to die. She was psychotic long before that. Sure, she's guilty of murder. So is the alcoholic who kills innocent people on the highway. There are failures to seek treatment in both cases. There are failures by others to get involved in both cases. The difference is, the alcoholic had to pick up the bottle and pour the drinks. Andrea Yates had her brain poisoned -- slowly -- by her own body chemistry.

Since we execute the retarded in this country, the European approach would seem wimpy to us.

Regards--
Mary Anne