08/06/2026
"I want help. I want to be well."
The Lindsay Clancy case is impossibly disturbing, terrifying, and sad. It's also hugely important for raising awareness about perinatal mental health, postpartum psychosis, the necessity of care coordination, and the soul-level devastation that can run rampant through the homes of postpartum women.
The passages read from Lindsay's journal on Monday could have been written by any postpartum client I've ever worked with; they could have been written by me. Her pain, desperation, and fear is palpable, and also sadly ordinary for SO many women.
I spend so much time with perinatal clients, providers, and colleagues talking about the importance of placing the mother at the center of the family system. Her needs, health, and wellbeing must come first – before her children, her partner, or anything else. Most women bristle at this idea (just like I did as a new mom) feeling it push uncomfortably against our cultural conditioning about the selflessness of motherhood.
We all need to read the Lindsay Clancy case for the warning it is: This is what can happen when we do not center the health of mothers. Like so many perinatal families across this country, Lindsay, her husband, and her children were entirely failed.
What will we do as a collective to ensure this does not keep happening?
Attorneys entered a handwritten journal into evidence Monday during...
