Chapter 1. Postpartum Psychosis: The Case of Andrea Yates

Short Description

The program opens with home video footage of a happy Andrea Yates who has just given birth to her fifth child, Mary. Only seven months later, she would murder all her children.

Long Description

The program opens with home video footage of a happy Andrea Yates who has just given birth to her fifth child, Mary. Only seven months later, she would murder all her children. Her husband, Rusty, describes his wife as a loving mother who cared deeply for her children and who would never have hurt them. He explains her actions as the product of a “sick mind.”

Although Andrea never gave any indication that she would hurt her children, after her arrest she reported to authorities that she had been hearing voices that the devil was after her children and that she needed to save them. The murders occurred on a June morning after her husband had left for work. About 10 AM, Andrea called him to tell him that he needed to come home. She had drowned the children in the bathtub and then called 911.

Andrea’s problem began two years earlier after the birth of her fourth son, Luke. Twice she threatened suicide. She was hospitalized with the diagnosis of postpartum depression with psychosis, sometimes also called postpartum psychosis. Although many new mothers experience the “baby blues” and some experience postpartum depression, the disorder of postpartum psychosis is extraordinarily severe and affects less than one percent of women. Some with postpartum psychosis may either kill themselves or their children.

Treated with medication after the birth of her fourth child, Andrea’s symptoms lifted almost immediately. She returned home and again seemed happily devoted to raising her children. She home-schooled her older sons and cooked and cleaned the house. She ignored recommendations to get household help. For more than a year after her hospitalization, life was normal in the Yates household.

In spite of a doctor’s warning that Andrea might again be susceptible to the symptoms of postpartum depression and psychosis, the Yates decided to have another child. Rusty explains that the forewarning of new symptoms had been accompanied by the assurance that treatment would again be effective. Months after the birth of Mary, Andrea’s symptoms returned with a vengeance and severity that, Rusty concludes, killed the children.

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