My SD Moms (CNN)They are tragedies impossible to comprehend. Over the past three months, three New York City mothers have allegedly tossed their babies out windows, and they’ve fallen to
their deaths.
In the most recent case, Tenisha Fearon, 27, reportedly screamed “We’re all going to die” in front of her other children before allegedly throwing her 6-month-old daughter out the window of her sixth-floor apartment.
Fearon was charged with murder in the death; she’s in police custody and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, according to CNN affiliate WABC. En route to her first court appearance, CNN affiliate WCBS reported, she made a comment to her godmother, Louella Hatch.“She said, ‘I tried to tell you Miss Louella,’ but I don’t understand,” Hatch said. The godmother said she had seen the family one day before the deadly incident and everything seemed OK. She now believes her godchild, whom she said usually appeared happy and confident, was suffering from postpartum depression but never spoke up. “My belief is she was sick and just didn’t tell anybody,” Hatch said. “This is a disease and nobody detects it.”
Hayden Panettiere enters treatment for postpartum depression We don’t know what Fearon might be experiencing. What we do know is that as many as 20% of women — one in five — will suffer from some form of depression, mood or anxiety disorder during or after pregnancy, according to experts I spoke with who work with women. The spectrum of illnesses goes beyond depression to include anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and in the rarest and most serious cases, postpartum psychosis. Extreme cases of that illness tend to garner national media attention, although postpartum psychosis affects a very small number of moms — just one or two of every 1,000 new mothers. Women in low-income communities are more at risk for postpartum depression or any other form of pregnancy-related mental illness during or after pregnancy, according to the research. Postpartum depression: One mom’s mission becomes a movement.
