08/21/2026
As a PMH-C (Perinatal Mental Health Certified) therapist, I've watched the Lindsay Clancy case ripple through the perinatal community with a mix of grief, fear, and a lot of hard questions. If you've felt shaken by it — as a parent, a survivor of postpartum illness, or someone who loves one — you are not alone, and your reaction makes sense.
This case is a devastating reminder that postpartum mental illness can become a medical emergency. Postpartum psychosis is rare, but it is real, it is treatable, and it is not the same thing as "having a hard time adjusting." It can involve confusion, delusions, paranoia, or a break from reality — and it requires urgent psychiatric care, not willpower or good intentions. It also shines a light on our inadequate healthcare system which is particularly harmful to women, perinatal birth partners, and even more so to women of color.
Here is what I want every parent, provider, and support person reading this to know:
→ Struggling after birth does not make you a danger. Intrusive, scary thoughts are common and are usually the opposite of psychosis — most parents who have them are horrified by them and would never act on them.
→ Psychosis is different. It can include hearing or believing things that aren't real, extreme confusion, or rapidly shifting mood. It is a psychiatric emergency.
→ Getting help is not a failure. It is the bravest, most protective thing you can do for your family.
→ You deserve to be asked "how are you really doing?" more than once, by more than one person.
→ Adequate care and a community of support are not extras — they are essential. No parent should be navigating the fourth trimester isolated, under-resourced, or without someone checking in on them.
Cases like this are a mirror held up to how we as a society support new mothers. We ask parents to recover from birth, keep a newborn alive, and function on little sleep — often with inadequate and unpaid parental leave, thin postpartum medical follow-up, and no support around them. That has to change. Supporting mothers can't be an individual responsibility alone; it has to be a community and systemic one — better screening, better access to perinatal mental health care, paid leave, and people showing up with meals, hands, and check-ins, not just congratulations.
If something in you or someone you love doesn't feel right after having a baby — trust that instinct. Call your OB, your midwife, a trusted person, or a crisis line. Bring someone with you if you can. You do not have to carry this alone, and you do not have to wait until it feels "bad enough."
There is help. There is hope. And there is a path back to feeling like yourself again.
💛 If you or someone you know is struggling, the Postpartum Support International Helpline is available at 1-800-944-4773, or text "Help" to 800-944-4773.
If there is any immediate danger, please call or text 988 (Su***de & Crisis Lifeline) or go to your nearest emergency room.
