Ignoring mental health of new mothers can be deadly

Olivia Petter examines the stigma and consequences of postpartum psychosis, a severe and debilitating mental illness that affects 1,400 women in the UK each year

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The night before his wife died, Rich Baish texted a friend to tell him he thought she was suffering from postnatal depression. "I knew something was wrong," he recalls, noting how the couple's newborn daughter, Rosie, had struggled to latch while breastfeeding and been waking several times during the night. “My wife had become extremely anxious, telling me how everything felt exhausting. I empathised and said we’d go slowly and work through it all together.”

The couple also had a three-year-old son, Freddie. “I put it down to her trying to cope with the demands of a newborn as well as a toddler. I realise now this was the time I should’ve taken more drastic action.” They made changes: switching from breastfeeding to formula and making a habit of visiting the local garden centre on Saturdays. “One evening, when I was playing with our son, she looked at me and said, ‘You’re a really good person, you know that?’ Retrospectively, I knew by this point she’d made up her mind.”

One month after giving birth to Rosie, Rich’s wife took her own life. She had no history of mental health issues. “It was so sudden,” he says. “That’s what terrifies me now when I think of it. My wife’s decline was essentially over 72 hours.”

Postpartum psychosis is a rare but severe mental illness affecting roughly 1,400 new mothers in the UK each year. Between one and five of those result in suicide. Symptoms often come out of nowhere, often within the first two weeks of giving birth, and range from low mood and mania to delusions and hallucinations.