Question

Indianapolis has experienced infanticide due to postpartum depression. Women tend to kill their child during its first three weeks of life while men (husbands, lovers) tend to kill the child during the first two years.  Please consult an outside reference.

What causes post-partum mothers to kill their infant? What can be done to stop the killing?

What causes the husband to kill the infant? (Example: Leaving the child in the back seat of the car on a hot day.)

What causes lovers and boyfriends of the mother to kill the child? (Beating, shaking, drowning)

What can be done to stop the killing?

Answer 1

* Postpartum psychosis is a rare but serious mental health illness that can effect a woman soon after she has a baby. many woman experience mild mood changes after having a baby, known as "Baby blues" this is normal and usually only lasts for a few days. But postpartum psychosis is very different from the "Baby blues". It's a serious mental illness and should be treated as a medical emergency. Its sometimes called Puerperal psychosis or postnatal psychosis. Symptoms usually starts suddenly within the first two weeks after giving birth. More rarely they can develop several weeks after the baby is born.

* Most commonly these are the symptoms, hallucinations,delusions(thoughts or beliefs that are unlickely true), A low mood(Showing signs of depression,being withdrawn or treatful,lacking energy, having a loss of appetite,anxiety or trouble sleeping), A manic mood(Talking and thinkingtoo much or too quickly,feeling high or on top of the world),Feeling suspecious or fearful ,Behaving in a way thats out of character.

* These symptoms lead the mothers to kill their infant.And to stop killing,This serious mental illness should be treated as a medical emergency. If not treated immediately, You can get rapidly worse and could neglect or harm your baby or yourself. Most woman needs to be treated in hospital. Ideally, this would be with your baby in a specialist psychiatric unit called a mother and a baby unit(MBU). But you may be admitted to a general psychiatric ward until an MBU is available. Mainly anti depressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilisers are the commonly used medication.

* Husband killing the infants is commonly known as Infanticide.Which is the international killings of the infants.Parental infanticide researchers have found that mothers are far more likely than fathers to be the perpetrators of neonaticide and slightly more likely to commit infanticide in general.Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunter gatherers to high civilizations, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception then,it has been the rule.Uncontrolled use of drugs can also lead to infanticide.

* The thing that causes lovers and boyfriends of the mother to kill the child is because they think that the child will be a liability in their life. And when the mother has a baby, the law wont allow an illegal relationship with another person.hence causing the lovers and boyfriends of the mother to kill the child.Here also the excess use of drugs has a role.And to stop this killing, the only way is to counsel the mother.She should realise that the child is her own blood, and also having a secondary relationship is wrong.