A Massachusetts murder trial has thrust postpartum psychosis into the national spotlight as supporters rally behind a mother accused of killing her three children.
Lindsay Clancy (36), a nurse from Duxbury, admits to strangling her children – Cora (5), Dawson (3), and eight-month-old Callan – with fitness bands at their home in January 2023. She then jumped from a second-storey window, leaving her paralysed from the waist down.
Clancy has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Her defence argues she suffered from postpartum psychosis and heard voices commanding her to kill the children. Prosecutors reject this, claiming she planned the murders and understood what she was doing.
Jury deliberations began on Thursday at Plymouth court, where dozens of women in pink have gathered for weeks to support Clancy and raise awareness about maternal mental health.
Calls for better medical care
Kelly Woods, a lawyer from Chicago attending the trial, described herself as a “big advocate” for people suffering from postpartum psychosis.
“That is a very under-considered element of this case,” Woods told AFP. “I certainly hope that the medical community can learn from this. I ultimately hope that there is more advocacy for postpartum depression and psychosis.”
During the five-week trial, psychiatrists and people close to Clancy, including her estranged husband, described her distress before the killings. Her lawyer Kevin Reddington argued she received “lousy medical care” despite repeatedly asking for help.
Adrienne Griffen, executive director of the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, said: “She was doing everything that she could to get help, and for whatever reason, she still slipped through the cracks. That is the question that everybody is asking, is how do we prevent something like this from happening in the future.”
Rare but serious condition
Postpartum psychosis affects one to two women in every 1 000 births and is considered a medical emergency, according to Sally Wilson, national training coordinator at UK-based charity Action on Postpartum Psychosis.
Wilson described Clancy’s case as “an incredibly distressing and rare outcome of postpartum psychosis.”
The trial has revived memories of Andrea Yates, a Texas mother who drowned her five children in 2001. Yates was initially convicted but found not guilty by reason of insanity at a 2006 retrial and committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Divided public opinion
Prosecutors acknowledged Clancy suffered from mental illness but argued the killings were planned and cruel. She faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
Right-wing commentators have condemned both the violence and the courthouse supporters. Katie Miller, wife of a senior aide to President Donald Trump, wrote on social media: “Lindsay Clancy deserves to die for murdering her three children.”
Juliet Williams, a gender studies professor at the University of California Los Angeles, said the case reveals deep divisions in how society views motherhood.
“This figure of the good mother and then of course the bad mother becomes a dividing ground in our society,” Williams said.
The case mirrors another tragedy involving a South African mother in New Zealand. Lauren Dickason, a medical doctor, killed her three daughters – Lianè (6), and two-year-old twins Karla and Maya – in Timaru in September 2021.
The family had immigrated from South Africa, where Dickason had struggled with postpartum depression following difficult IVF treatments. She smothered the children in their beds just days after completing mandatory Covid-19 isolation.
Dickason pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, citing severe depression. However, prosecutors argued she acted deliberately out of anger and resentment. In August 2023, a jury found her guilty of three counts of murder.
She was sentenced to 18 years in prison in June 2024, ruling a life sentence would be “manifestly unjust” due to the causal link between her severe depressive disorder and the killings. She remains in a mental health facility until deemed stable enough for prison.
