Andrea Yates Research Paper

Andrea Yates:

A Look into Postpartum Psychosis

Emily Hughes

Missouri Valley College

If you ask most mothers if they have ever thought of hurting their children, most all would answer with a stern no. Most people do not think it is possible to harm their children. It was a midmorning on June 20st 2001 in Houston when an eerily calm woman phoned 911 to come to her home. No one was prepared for the horror that was behind the doors to this modest brick home. Andrea Yates mother of five young children had drown her children one by one in the family bathtub. Andrea’s past is extremely important to the story of what happened in that Houston home on that fateful day. Many seemingly insignificant events made a huge impact on

Postpartum psychosis is a specifier for a current major depressive episode like in Andrea’s case. Postpartum psychosis is mental illness that has an onset shortly after childbirth. The symptoms of postpartum depression tend to develop very quickly, typically in the first few weeks after delivery, normally between 1 and four weeks. Postpartum depression is the most severe of the postpartum disorders and is also the rarest, only about 1 or 2 cases of every 1,000 births. Sometimes, at first, the mother might just feel excited and unable to sleep before the more serious side effects take hold. . The illness is characterized by extreme mood disturbances. Many times these can manifest as dangerous mood swings and hallucinations. It is important to note that not all cases of postpartum psychosis symptoms are the same in every case. However, usually symptoms include hearing voices, feeling disconnected from reality and even manic type behavior. Typically postpartum psychosis is considered an extension on a manic depressive

These delusions, in contrast to schizophrenia, develop very quickly and are usually centered on the child. Research on mothers with postpartum psychosis done by P.S Chandra (2006) has shown that delusions that the baby is evil increase the risk of harm towards the child (Chandra, Bhargavaraman, Raghunandan & Shaligram 2006) In Andrea’s case her delusions were that her children were becoming evil because of her and stumbling from god’s path. Andrea’s particular type of delusion may have increased the chances that harm was going to come to her children by her own hand. Similar research also found that when delusions are related to the child the infants had higher rates of abusive and mothers were considered unsafe to look after their children when alone. The type of delusions Andrea was having are very important. Many studies, like the P.S. Chandra study previously stated, found the type of delusion is directly related to the type of interaction mothers have with their children. There are certain delusions that are significantly related to infant abuse or harm. All this research helps show how detrimental postpartum psychosis can be when the delusions are directly related to the