Top Tweets for #pNd

Right now, there is a trial happening in Boston that is being televised where a mother with postpartum psychosis killed her 3 young children before slashing her own wrists and jumping out of a second floor window, which ended up paralyzing her from the waist down. Her psychosis took off after the birth of her 3rd child, right before she was scheduled to return to work as a labor and delivery nurse. She was being treated with medication, daily appointments with her doctors and a stint at McLean Psychiatric Hospital. She is the one who begged for help. She committed this crime on the day her husband left the house for 1/2 hour to get groceries because she seemed to be doing better. The fact that this woman is on trial when she was clearly out of her mind is unconscionable. The fact that she, her husband and even the first responders are being forced to relive the event is also unconscionable. One of the jurors asked to be removed because he couldn’t handle it. Out of all the things though, the most unconscionable of unconscionable things is the way we treat mothers and their babies in this country. From @taprootbirth “Postpartum depression is a condition affecting the neurotransmitters in a person's brain. It is also caused by lack of presence, care and community. In many traditional cultures it is taught that a new mother should never be left alone with her babies. She needs the co-regulation of wise women/people. She needs grounded humans who feed her, make sure she is hydrated, clean her sink, brew her tea, ladle her soup, and play with her other children. Someone to sit with her, share stories, and make her laugh. Help her remember she is human. A mother who is left alone with her babies postpartum has the cognitive impact of a person who has survived war. Her body thinks she has been abandoned by her community.” If there is something good to come out of this, let it be the end of the expectation that caregiving is something that we consider as a last priority after all the other things. Because it’s fucking time.