A Delaware woman stands accused of killing her 7-month-old daughter over the weekend. She was in treatment for her bipolar disorder, but also was diagnosed earlier this year, shortly after the birth of her daughter, with postpartum depression.
Postpartum depression is a common mood disorder in mothers following the birth of a child. Mothers who have it feel completely overwhelmed by depression, about not being a good enough mother, and not having any desire to interact or even see their newborn baby.
This isn’t the first story of a mother killing her child shortly after the child’s birth. But what is more disturbing in this story is that the woman, Christie Padovani, was in active treatment — both medications (Risperdal) and psychotherapy — for her ongoing bipolar disorder. She even underwent hospitalization for postpartum depression back in April. In other words, she’s the model of a person actively working to help herself.
Despite all of this professional help, she still ended up feeling so overwhelmed, apparently, that she took her young infant’s life on Saturday. She called 911 immediately after drowning the child and reported what she had done.
Significant behavior change is often a sign that something is “up.” And while her husband noticed the change, it’s not clear that her mental health professional team did:
But in the past two months, her behavior had changed noticeably.
“She was complaining about being severely depressed and spoke about giving up the kids for adoption because she didn’t think she was a good mother,” he said. “She said she felt like she was a bad mother because she didn’t feel like taking care of the children and didn’t feel like getting on the floor and playing with them.”
Naturally, people will be asking the usual questions a terrible tragedy like this demands — “Who’s to blame?” and “How can we stop this in the future?”
These are never easy questions to answer. Given the woman was undergoing treatment for her issues, I’m not sure what else could’ve been done. This is just a tragic case of what can happen sometimes when someone decides to do something drastic and terrible…
Read the full story: Man copes with loss of baby girl
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4 Responses to “Postpartum Depression Claims Another Life?” (Pingbacks/trackbacks not shown below)
JOCELYN MADDEN at 4:06 pm on
October 15th, 2007
THIS GIVES PEOPLE WITH BIPOLAR A BAD REPUTATION, IT’S NOT THE BIPOLAR THAT MADE HER KILL HER BABY BUT THE POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION, SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN UNDER THE CARE OF A PSYCHARTRIST. SHE GAVE EVERYBODY WARNING SIGNS AND THEY CHOOSE NOT TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT SO THE BLAME LIES WITH NOT JUST HER BUT EVERYONE WHO DID NOTHING ABOUT IT. I’M BIPOLAR AND I NEVER KILLED MY SON! I’M TIRED OF THESE WOMEN COPING THE INSANITY PLEA, THEY CHOSE TO KILL AN INNOCENT BABY THAT COULD NOT PROTECT HIM/HERSELF, THESE WOMEN DESERVE THE DEATH PENALTY! NO IF’S OR AND’S ABOUT IT! I STAND FIRM ON MY DECISION. AND THEY SEEM TO ALL FIND
“GOD” OR “JESUS” IN JAIL, WE’LL WERE WAS HE WHEN THEY WERE KILLING THEIR BABIES!
Holly Maxfield at 4:14 pm on
October 15th, 2007
well put!i agree completely!!
I had postpartum depression. Interestingly, it was Jerilyn Ross’s book about anxiety that finally enabled me to get over the feeling of wanting to kill my kids, and I didn’t find it until my son was about 5 years old. She explained that if you have homicidal ideation, you can tell yourself that you never intend to kill the other person–it’s just a thought. Even though mine lasted for years and blended with my normal depression, that homicidal ideation stuff was difficult to deal with because there’s no worse feeling than the one that you should kill your kids. And yet, I knew every minute that I would never kill my kids. They weren’t in any danger. In the Wizard of Oz books by Baum, the Hungry Tiger wants to eat babies, but has never eaten one. I was the Hungry Tiger. Because I was dealing with those feelings every day for years, I became extremely angry every time I heard of a woman who crossed the line–who didn’t do whatever was necessary to keep her children safe. Now that I’m past that stage of my life, I’m more tolerant.
lawrence agee at 10:07 am on
January 11th, 2008
has anyone ever considered it’s the drugs?
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THIS GIVES PEOPLE WITH BIPOLAR A BAD REPUTATION, IT’S NOT THE BIPOLAR THAT MADE HER KILL HER BABY BUT THE POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION, SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN UNDER THE CARE OF A PSYCHARTRIST. SHE GAVE EVERYBODY WARNING SIGNS AND THEY CHOOSE NOT TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT SO THE BLAME LIES WITH NOT JUST HER BUT EVERYONE WHO DID NOTHING ABOUT IT. I’M BIPOLAR AND I NEVER KILLED MY SON! I’M TIRED OF THESE WOMEN COPING THE INSANITY PLEA, THEY CHOSE TO KILL AN INNOCENT BABY THAT COULD NOT PROTECT HIM/HERSELF, THESE WOMEN DESERVE THE DEATH PENALTY! NO IF’S OR AND’S ABOUT IT! I STAND FIRM ON MY DECISION. AND THEY SEEM TO ALL FIND
“GOD” OR “JESUS” IN JAIL, WE’LL WERE WAS HE WHEN THEY WERE KILLING THEIR BABIES!
well put!i agree completely!!
I had postpartum depression. Interestingly, it was Jerilyn Ross’s book about anxiety that finally enabled me to get over the feeling of wanting to kill my kids, and I didn’t find it until my son was about 5 years old. She explained that if you have homicidal ideation, you can tell yourself that you never intend to kill the other person–it’s just a thought. Even though mine lasted for years and blended with my normal depression, that homicidal ideation stuff was difficult to deal with because there’s no worse feeling than the one that you should kill your kids. And yet, I knew every minute that I would never kill my kids. They weren’t in any danger. In the Wizard of Oz books by Baum, the Hungry Tiger wants to eat babies, but has never eaten one. I was the Hungry Tiger. Because I was dealing with those feelings every day for years, I became extremely angry every time I heard of a woman who crossed the line–who didn’t do whatever was necessary to keep her children safe. Now that I’m past that stage of my life, I’m more tolerant.
has anyone ever considered it’s the drugs?
