The conversation should not be about how we, as a society, punish her for killing her children. It should be how we, as a society, work to ensure this never happens again.

Post-partum psychosis is shockingly COMMON. It happens to 0.1-0.2% of birthing mothers. Post-partum psychosis is DEADLY, 5% of women who are diagnosed with it kill themselves and 4% kill their children. It’s a serious, serious disease. She was doing everything right: was in outpatient treatment, was not supposed to be left alone, etc.

Where is the societal support? Where are the beds so she could be inpatient? Why does someone in her position have to rely on insurance agreeing to pay for treatment? Why do we not cover aides to help with home care and supervision? Where is the state funding for mental health treatment? Where is the respite care for her husband?

It’s hard because the first instinct is to judge HER. The second instinct is to judge her husband. But it’s not a PRIVATE tragedy, we should all take a good hard look at the state of mental health care instead. We need to do fucking better: the kids’ deaths were preventable.