![\"Postpartum](\"https:\/\/apicms.thestar.com.my\/uploads\/images\/2026\/10\/06\/4145304.jpg\")
Postpartum psychosis can happen to anyone after giving birth, but the chances are higher for people with certain mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder. Photo: Pexels<\/p>\nAbout two weeks after giving birth, Bridget Mar\u00eda Chesterton was curled up on the bathroom floor, saying things that made little sense. Later, in the emergency room, she kept repeating, “What\u2019s going on?\u201d She\u2019d lost touch with reality.<\/p>\n
The family eventually learned that Chesterton had postpartum psychosis, a severe mental health disorder thrust into the spotlight by the case of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts woman on trial for strangling her three children. A key question is whether postpartum psychosis drove Clancy to do it.<\/p>\n
Researchers estimate that the condition \u2013 a mental health emergency that is less common than postpartum depression \u2013 afflicts one to two out of 1,000 women after delivery.<\/p>\n
Although most who develop postpartum psychosis don\u2019t harm their children, mothers with severe cases may try to harm themselves or their kids.<\/p>\n
If not for medication and strong family support, Chesterton said her own situation “could have gone sideways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chesterton bristles at online comments about the Clancy case suggesting postpartum psychosis is not a real disorder.<\/p>\n
She feels driven to raise awareness by sharing her story publicly; a poem she wrote about the experience will be published in a journal. She wants to dispel misconceptions about the widely misunderstood condition \u2013 and let families know there is hope.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s something that we do not talk about as a society,\u201d said Chesterton, a 52-year-old history professor who lives outside Buffalo, New York. “I\u2019m not embarrassed about what happened. I want people to know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A tough journey<\/p>\n
Chesterton and her husband James Fitzsimmons wanted a baby desperately and underwent fertility treatment for years.<\/p>\n
She finally got pregnant in her mid-40s and had severe asthma during the pregnancy that put her in the hospital. She gave birth to her daughter by C-section in January 2019, about two months early.<\/p>\n
“Everything about bringing her into the world was awful,\u201d Chesterton said. “It was the longest seven months of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just after the birth, the baby was hurried off to the neonatal intensive care unit, where she spent her first weeks of life.<\/p>\n
Chesterton went home and seemed fine at first. But the day Fitzsimmons found her on the bathroom floor, her family said, she had trouble remembering basic details of her life and made strange comments, such as “it’s meditation day” even though she doesn’t meditate. Fitzsimmons called his wife\u2019s mum, Maria Chesterton, who met the couple at the hospital.<\/p>\n
Postpartum psychosis can happen to anyone after giving birth, but the chances are higher for people with certain mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder. Photo: Pexels<\/p>\n
“She didn\u2019t even remember having a baby,\u201d the Maria said. “She knew us vaguely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disorganised thinking and delusions are among the symptoms of postpartum psychosis, which also may include hallucinations, paranoia, agitation and mood changes.<\/p>\n
Postpartum depression, by contrast, is a mood disorder affecting about one in seven women after giving birth \u2013 or more, according to some research.<\/p>\n
Postpartum psychosis can happen to anyone after giving birth, but the chances are higher for people with certain mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder. Chesterton didn\u2019t have such conditions, said obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Emily Williams, one of her doctors.<\/p>\n
Chesterton was transferred to BryLin Hospital in Buffalo, which provides crisis mental healthcare, and spent about two weeks there. Her mum, who was staying at the couple\u2019s house to help out, remembers visiting her with food and Valentine\u2019s Day chocolates.<\/p>\n
When she was released, she did OK for a few days, her mum remembers, then “just lost it.\u201d She stared blankly ahead, not knowing where she was or what was happening. But she did manage to aggressively express that she didn\u2019t want to go back to the same place she\u2019d just left, so she was institutionalised involuntarily.<\/p>\n
“We had no choice,\u201d her mother said. “She was in bad shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
The invaluable village<\/p>\n
She stayed for another two weeks \u2013 apart from her baby. “I was kind of lucky that she was in the NICU,\u201d Chesterton said, “because we had somebody to take care of her when I was so sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chesterton believes antipsychotic drugs ultimately brought her back to reality. But just as essential was the support of her family. When the baby came home after nearly two months at the hospital, her team of helpers included her husband, mum, dad and a postpartum doula.<\/p>\n
“She helped me learn how to take care of the baby, remember her \u2013 you know, to become a parent again,\u201d Chesterton said, adding that she knows how lucky she is that her family had the resources to provide such care.<\/p>\n
Williams said family support is crucial in the postpartum period even if everything is going well. “The more hands on deck, the better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Over the next several months, it was as if a fog slowly lifted.<\/p>\n
“We could see improvement in her. It was a little bit at a time,\u201d her mother said. “She was taking care of the baby. The glassy-eyed look was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chesterton stayed on antipsychotics for about a year. By her daughter\u2019s first birthday party, she was back to normal.<\/p>\n
Williams said Chesterton\u2019s family did the right thing when they took quick action after symptoms arose. Sometimes, the doctor said, people may deny that something so serious could be wrong with a loved one’s mental health and attribute signs of postpartum psychosis to things like needing more sleep.<\/p>\n
Chesterton\u2019s mother advised other families to be vigilant for signs of the illness, then come together to shepherd loved ones through it.<\/p>\n
“If my daughter would not have had the support system,\u201d she said, “I don\u2019t know how this would have turned out.\u201d \u2013 AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About two weeks after giving birth, Bridget Mar\u00eda Chesterton was curled up on the bathroom floor, saying things…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[22059,15316,536,15974,134,527,554,555,30510,111,139,69,311363,5994,1886],"class_list":["post-635177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-babies","tag-birth","tag-care","tag-emergency","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-mothers","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-postnatal","tag-pregnancy","tag-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}