{"id":1019218,"date":"2026-08-23T15:14:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T15:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1019218\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T15:14:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T15:14:28","slug":"a-mom-stricken-by-postpartum-psychosis-shares-her-story-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1019218\/","title":{"rendered":"A mom stricken by postpartum psychosis shares her story of hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 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, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d She\u2019d lost touch with reality.<\/p>\n

The family eventually learned that Chesterton had postpartum psychosis<\/a>, a severe mental health disorder thrust into the spotlight<\/a> by the case of Lindsay Clancy,<\/a> a Massachusetts woman on trial for strangling her three children. A key question<\/a> is whether postpartum psychosis drove Clancy to do it.<\/p>\n

Researchers estimate that the condition \u2014 a mental health emergency that is less common than postpartum depression \u2014 afflicts 1 to 2 out of 1,000 women after delivery. 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 \u201ccould have gone sideways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chesterton bristles at online comments about the Clancy case<\/a> suggesting postpartum psychosis is not a real disorder. She feels driven to raise awareness by sharing her story publicly; a poem she wrote about the experience will be published in a journal in the fall. She wants to dispel misconceptions about the widely misunderstood condition \u2014 and let families know there is hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\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. \u201cI\u2019m not embarrassed about what happened. I want people to know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A mom was fine at first, then \u2018in bad shape\u2019<\/p>\n

Chesterton and her husband James Fitzsimmons wanted a baby desperately and underwent fertility treatment for years. 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

\u201cEverything about bringing her into the world was awful,\u201d Chesterton said. \u201cIt 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. To protect the child\u2019s privacy, The Associated Press is withholding her name at the family\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.<\/p>\n

___<\/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 \u201cit\u2019s meditation day\u201d even though she doesn\u2019t meditate. Fitzsimmons called his wife\u2019s mom, Maria Chesterton, who met the couple at the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn\u2019t even remember having a baby,\u201d the elder Chesterton said. \u201cShe knew us vaguely.\u201d<\/p>\n

People with certain conditions are more likely to be affected<\/p>\n

Disorganized thinking and delusions are among the symptoms of postpartum psychosis, which also may include hallucinations, paranoia, agitation and mood changes. Postpartum depression, by contrast, is a mood disorder affecting about 1 in 7 women after giving birth \u2014 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 Dr. Emily Williams of Buffalo OB\/GYN, 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 mom, 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 mom remembers, then \u201cjust 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 institutionalized involuntarily.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no choice,\u201d her mother said. \u201cShe was in bad shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

She stayed for another two weeks \u2014 apart from her baby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of lucky that she was in the NICU,\u201d Chesterton said, \u201cbecause we had somebody to take care of her when I was so sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medication and family support help a mom recover<\/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, mom, dad and a postpartum doula<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe helped me learn how to take care of the baby, remember her \u2014 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, the doctor, said family support is crucial in the postpartum period even if everything is going well. \u201cThe 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

\u201cWe could see improvement in her. It was a little bit at a time,\u201d her mother said. \u201cShe 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

Doctor encourages families to be on alert for signs of trouble<\/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\u2019s 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

\u201cIf my daughter would not have had the support system,\u201d she said, \u201cI don\u2019t know how this would have turned out.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/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":3,"featured_media":1019219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[3881,407877,17546,57,51,210,407878,236901,2739,1060,617,50,11290,24131,52,61],"class_list":["post-1019218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ap-top-news","tag-bridget-mara-chesterton","tag-buffalo","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-james-fitzsimmons","tag-lindsay-clancy","tag-massachusetts","tag-medication","tag-nevada","tag-news","tag-nv-state-wire","tag-pregnancy-and-childbirth","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117145479843654585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1019218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1019219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1019218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1019218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1019218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}