By Laura Ungar –
About two weeks after she gave birth, relatives found Bridget Maria Chesterton on the bathroom floor mumbling nonsense. When they took her to the emergency room, she kept asking, “What’s wrong?”, dissociated from reality.
Chesterton later received a diagnosis of postpartum psychosis, a serious mental health problem that has been widely talked about in recent days in the United States due to the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a former nurse in Massachusetts accused of killing her three children and attempting suicide. Her defense argues that postpartum psychosis is what led to those actions.
The mental health condition affects between 1 and 2 in every 1,000 people after they give birth, according to research. It is less common than postpartum depression (affecting 1 in 7 women), but can lead to more serious symptoms that may lead a woman to harm herself or her baby.
Chesterton said that if it weren’t for the support of his family and the fact that the medications he received worked, “my situation would have become very dark.”
That’s why Chesterton suffers from the comments that many people have shared online when talking about the Clancy trial, with some people questioning whether postpartum psychosis is a real thing. Chesterton hopes that by sharing his experience there will be fewer misunderstandings about the disorder, less stigma about talking about it, and also more stories about how it might be coped.
“It’s something we as a society don’t want to discuss,” said Chesterton, now 52 and a history teacher in Buffalo, New York. “But I’m not ashamed to say that I lived it and I want people to know that it does happen.”
James Fitzsimmons, Chesterton’s husband, remembers what the days were like after the woman returned from the hospital after a cesarean section in January 2019; Her baby had been put in intensive care because she was born premature. Chesterton looked lost, and then Fitzsimmons found her on the bathroom floor.
“She didn’t even remember that she had given birth,” said Maria Chesterton, the woman’s mother. “He didn’t recognize me or him,” he added about his son-in-law.
Complicated symptoms
Symptoms of postpartum psychosis include jumbled thoughts, hallucinations, sudden mood changes, and feelings of paranoia.
Postpartum psychosis can occur in anyone after giving birth, although it has been found to be more likely among those who have a pre-existing condition such as bipolar disorder. Chesterton does not have any of those conditions, according to one of his doctors, obstetrician-gynecologist Emily Williams.
(A rare disorder causes a man to perceive human faces as those of a “demon.”)
After her episode on the bathroom floor, Chesterton was transferred from the emergency room to a specialized hospital, BryLin, which offers care for people in mental health crises. Chesterton spent two weeks there and was discharged.
But Maria Chesterton, the woman’s mother, remembers that just a few days later “we lost her again.” Chesterton stared blankly at the wall and couldn’t answer basic questions about his life or who he was. She had to be hospitalized again, and spent another two weeks in BryLin.
Luckily, “my baby was in the NICU,” Chesterton said, “because someone was able to take care of her when I wasn’t able to.”
Family support and medications
Chesterton believes the antipsychotic medications he was prescribed made a difference, but that a key factor was the support of his family members. When her baby (whose name is being withheld for her privacy) was discharged from intensive care two months after delivery in March 2019, Chesterton had the support of her husband, her mother and a doula.
“She guided me and helped me to take care of the baby, to remember everything that had happened, to be able to be a mother,” Chesterton said.
(Why postpartum depression is so common in US Latina mothers)
Emily Williams, the OB-GYN who is part of Chesterton’s medical team, said having someone to lean on after giving birth is key even if there are no postpartum health issues. “The more people there are to get to work, the better.”
Little by little, Chesterton became herself again. She took antipsychotic medications for a year and by her daughter’s first birthday she was back to normal.
“We saw improvements day by day,” said Maria Chesterton. “He was no longer unfocused and was taking care of the girl.”
Williams, the doctor, said Chesterton’s family did the right thing by taking her to the emergency room and proceeding with her being at BryLin. The doctor indicated that sometimes people lessen certain symptoms in the days or weeks after someone gives birth, attributing them solely to issues such as lack of sleep.
Maria Chesterton, Bridget’s mother, said more people need to know to take action and support loved ones who go through these problems.
“If my daughter hadn’t had that support,” he said, “I don’t know how things would have ended.”
