Women's Health August 7, 2026 0 Comments

The Lindsay Clancy Trial Exposed Shocking Truths About Maternal Mental Health—What Nobody’s Saying That Could Change Everything

Last week, just a stone’s throw from where I call home outside Boston, the courtroom buzzed as the trial of Lindsay Clancy kicked off—a mother and nurse whose tragic 2023 actions shocked us all when she took the lives of her three young children before trying to take her own. You gotta ask yourself: how does a loving mother find herself pushed over that edge? The media storm that followed didn’t just swirl around the trial details but splashed wide into maternal mental health—a topic tight-lipped for too long, now suddenly center stage. The condition spotlighted here is postpartum psychosis, a terrifyingly severe mental health crisis that affects only a small fraction of new moms, yet its impact reverberates loudly. I’ve been digging into maternal health news for over a decade, and like a lot of you, my social feeds are now packed with info—some spot-on, others missing the mark. What’s clear is this: while mental health struggles around childbirth are common and, thankfully, often treatable, the stigma and confusion are still massive hurdles. Let’s talk honestly about what postpartum psychosis really is, why so many feel it’s hiding in plain sight, and why the way we tell these stories matters more than ever. Ready to dive deep and set the record straight?

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Last week, at a courthouse not far from where I live outside of Boston, the trial of Lindsay Clancy—a mother and nurse who killed her three young children in 2023 before attempting suicide—began.

With it came a tidal wave of coverage of the trial itself as well as of maternal mental health. In particular, reporters and media outlets raced to explain, as Abbie Ruzicka wrote last week in The Boston Globe, “a condition that even experts are still working to understand.” Postpartum psychosis is the severe mental health condition at the center of Clancy’s case. It’s estimated to occur in 0.1 to 0.2 percent of births. Lately, my feeds have become filled with posts, articles, and videos about it.

I’ve been a health reporter for 15 years, with 8 of them spent largely on maternal health, which is the focus of my Substack newsletter Two Truths; I’m also a cofounder of the nonprofit Chamber of Mothers, where we advocate for the support systems mothers in this country need to thrive. Most days, I write something about maternal health; over the past week, so has seemingly everyone else. Some of the coverage I’ve seen is careful and compassionate in its consideration. Some of it is inaccurate, incomplete, or worse.

Postpartum psychosis represents the severe edge of a crisis currently plaguing this country: perinatal mental health conditions, which also include depression and anxiety—more common conditions that affect one in five to seven new mothers, about 700,000 American women, a year.

All perinatal mental health conditions are highly treatable; sometimes, they’re even preventable.

Yet, as an ob-gyn I work with regularly reminded me just last week, the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in this country is no longer hemorrhage or preeclampsia; it’s mental health conditions—including suicide and overdose.

What Exactly Is Postpartum Psychosis?

If you talk to doctors who study it, they will tell you that postpartum psychosis is a psychiatric emergency largely characterized by a break from reality, often accompanied by delusions or hallucinations interspersed with moments of lucidity.

That lucidity part is important: In 2023, when the Food and Drug Administration approved the first oral medication specifically indicated for the treatment of postpartum depression, Women’s Health asked me to report a piece on moms’ mental health. I called Catherine Birndorf, MD, a friend and a trusted source. When I asked her about postpartum psychosis—which we also covered in that story—she explained to me what she sees at her maternal mental health facility, The Motherhood Center, and what she has gleaned from decades in the field.

Dr. Birndorf also told me that many patients with postpartum psychosis could be hiding in plain sight. While there are certainly risk factors for postpartum psychosis, “it doesn’t matter who you are,” says Dr. Birndorf. “This can happen to anyone.” About half of postpartum psychosis cases happen in women with no past psychiatric history.

Another thing we know: An overwhelming majority of women who experience postpartum psychosis do not harm their children, yet the condition does carry a risk of infanticide, the killing of babies or young children. A widely repeated stat lists the risk of infanticide in women with postpartum psychosis at 4 percent, yet one of the field’s top researchers told me recently that the risk is likely lower than 1 percent.

What We Still Don’t Know About the Condition

Postpartum psychosis is one of the most complicated conditions women face after childbirth, and like so much in women’s health, we don’t know nearly as much about it as we should.

In fact, the condition is notably absent from medicine’s diagnostic manuals. In October 2025, an international panel of experts recommended (for the first time) adding the condition to both the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) and the International Classification of Diseases, yet even the experts struggled to agree on where it belongs. The proposal would classify postpartum psychosis as a form of bipolar disorder—an imperfect solution, as some 30 percent of women who experience postpartum psychosis don’t meet the criteria for bipolar disorder.

There is important research being done on postpartum psychosis. But it also remains understudied; the field of perinatal mental health, in general, is young. Another leading specialist in this country once told me that as recently as 1987, she had to travel to London to learn about perinatal illness. There was no such thing as “perinatal psychiatry” in the United States at that time.

How to Talk About Maternal Mental Health Responsibly

In 2026, things have changed. There is more knowledge, more awareness, and it can feel as if everyone with a platform or a following is required to weigh in or speak up.

Yet maternal mental health is nuanced; the topic demands care in its telling, and increased awareness is only a good thing when it reflects accurate, up-to-date information. In order for women and families to get the care they need, in order to save lives, we need nonsensational, responsible, helpful coverage of maternal mental health.

Last year, Postpartum Support International published an open letter to the media on covering maternal mental health tragedies, noting that research has found crimes committed by women, particularly those involving their children, tend to receive more graphic coverage and longer-lasting coverage than comparable crimes committed by men. The group urged basic precautions, including always listing resources such as the Maternal Mental Health Hotline (833-943-5746).

Mothers I’ve spoken with are scared, anxious, and heartbroken. Many can’t look away. I’m not suggesting that this trial shouldn’t be covered or that we don’t need more voices speaking out about maternal mental health; it should, and we most certainly do. But there are more sensible ways to cover this trial than by replaying the most intimate, horrific details of someone’s life. Maybe we don’t need comment sections swirling with debates. Maybe we need everyone to know that these illnesses, as scary as they can feel, are temporary, and they are treatable. Maybe we need to remind someone where they can get help if they need it. Maybe we need hope.

As Dr. Birndorf says: “Whenever I talk to a new potential patient on the phone, I tell them, ‘We do this all day long, and we can get you well.’”

“Whenever I talk to a new potential patient on the phone, I tell them, ‘We do this all day long, and we can get you well.’”

What Comes Next for Maternal Health?

Right now there is a groundswell of support, with more people speaking up about their own mental health, too. Destigmatization and helping moms feel less alone are essential to getting people the care they need. “People seem willing to share in new ways,” says Dr. Birndorf. “But we need this to stay in the conversation.”

This trial is also unfolding at a time that could be a turning point for women’s and maternal health. The NIH IMPROVE Act—part of the Momnibus package of bills aimed at ending this country’s maternal health crisis—just passed the House of Representatives. Earlier this month, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Society for Women’s Health Research, and the Women First Research Coalition proposed a national strategy to close the “women’s health research gap.”

Policies such as paid leave are gaining traction on the state level (and we cannot talk about the well-being of mothers without talking about these supports—or the lack thereof). Companies and organizations dedicated to women’s health are finally getting funded.

So as we mourn the deaths of three innocent children, we need to also commit to finally, truly taking women’s health, maternal health, and mental health seriously—to building systems that work for moms. “We have to see mental health illnesses as the medical illnesses that they are,” says Dr. Birndorf. “We have many effective treatments—and if these illnesses can be identified and the stigma and shame can be diminished, if we can educate about these illnesses, learn about them, and train health care professionals about them, we can better prevent heartbreaking tragedies.”