Massachusetts murder trial has raised a key question -- whether postpartum psychosis drove a mother to kill her three children. Last month, a jury heard opening statements in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital. Both sides agree she strangled her children aged 5 and younger in 2023. But they disagree over whether she should be held criminally responsible. Clancy and her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, filed lawsuits accusing her medical providers of failing to properly diagnose and treat her condition.
Postpartum psychosis is rare and dangerous and it’s estimated to afflict only 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after delivery. Experts at the Cleveland Clinic describe it as a mental health emergency affecting someone’s sense of reality.
