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by meghan cliffel

A mom is on trial for killing her children. Her defense says she had post-partum psychosis. Psychiatrists hope the case brings attention to the need for better diagnosis and treatment for the illness.

All Things Considered
NPR
August 12, 2026

Boston-area trial draws attention to postpartum psychosis

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This trial has raised awareness of a lesser known mental health crises that some new moms face. One calls herself a survivor of postpartum psychosis. 

CNN Situation Room
Interview with Pamela Brown
August 12, 2026

Lindsay Clancy Case Sheds Light on Postpartum Psychosis

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Like Lindsay Clancy, I experienced postpartum psychosis. Only luck saved my kids. 

Slate
July 29, 2026

A Mom is on Trial for Killing Her Three Children. It Could Have Been Me. 

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Dr. Ruta and Allie are joined by postpartum psychosis survivors and advocates Meghan Cliffel and Kriti Lodha. Together they discuss what postpartum psychosis is, the symptoms to watch for, how treatment works, and what recovery can look like.

So Glad You Asked with Dr. Ruta Nonacs and Allie Hales
MGH Center for Women's Mental Health
July 8, 2026

What Should We All Know About Postpartum Psychosis?

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In our first partner perspective, we sit down with Meghan and Colin to hear their joint experience with postpartum psychosis, which emerged eight months after the birth of their second child. 

mom breaks podcast
December 22, 2025

Collecting Breadcrumbs, Misdiagnosed Bipolar, and Mindfulness after Postpartum Psychosis 

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A woman who experienced postpartum psychosis wanted to have another child. Her husband had a valid fear: “What if you kill the kids?”

Mothers charged with crimes would have to be evaluated for postpartum psychosis and other mental health disorders if a new Massachusetts bill is passed into law.


GBH
October 22, 2025

New mothers charged with crimes would get mental health screenings, treatment under new bill 

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It’s December 2015. On Thursday, Meghan Cliffel, a Lakewood native who was living in New York City, was a typical working mother with two daughters, one who was 8 months old. On that Friday, she became convinced everyone around her was part of a vast conspiracy to recruit her and her children into a dangerous cult. 

Northeast Ohio Parent
May 1, 2025

Postpartum Psychosis: The Danger We Aren't Talking About

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The night before his wife died, Rich Baish texted a friend to tell him he thought she was suffering from postnatal depression. “I knew something was wrong,” he recalls, noting how the couple’s newborn daughter, Rosie, had struggled to latch while breastfeeding and been waking several times during the night.

The Independent
April 15, 2025

The mental health of new mothers is being ignored - the results can be deadly

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“Take her! Take her! I have 2 kids in the bedroom. Don’t let them see this,” my husband Colin yelled as the cops entered our apartment. The NYPD wrestled me to the ground, handcuffed me, and strapped me to a gurney. I screamed as they wheeled me down the hallway believing I was leaving my babies behind to be killed.

Psychiatric Times
Mar 7, 2025

Tragic or Treated: Why We Cannot Miss Postpartum Psychosis

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I’m being followed.
The certainty of it hits me as I step onto the subway car and feel everyone’s eyes on me.  For a moment I chalk it up to my bright orange winter hat with the cryptic phrase “Wear Orange” on it. But as I look around the subway, I catch more strangers’ eyes, our glances meeting for a second before they look away, back down to their phones, earbuds in their ears.

The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
Dec  2024

Postpartum Psychosis, Two Sides of the Story

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Welcoming a new child is often painted as one of the happiest, most fulfilling moments of a person's life. But for many, the reality can be much more complicated. Coupled with the physical recovery and sleep deprivation, new parenthood can quickly become an emotional rollercoaster, and many parents may struggle to find their footing in the first few months after childbirth.

Sound of Ideas
Nov 19, 2024

Cleveland mother and a psychiatrist discuss postpartum psychosis, maternal mental health

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“It’s like looking up the skirt of the Catholic Church,” my sister remarked as we flipped through the catalog where you could buy: Mass. From the communion wafers—the body of Christ—to the Crown of Thorns, all of it: for sale.  I went to church every Sunday for eighteen years of my life. As a kid, I distanced myself from most of what was said on the altar by using sign language to have conversations with my sister, or lip-syncing what priests recited weekly.




The Lakewood Observer
March 20, 2024

What Would Jesus Do?

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Time together is time treasured for Meghan Cliffel and Colin Weaver. Enjoying a quiet lunch together is special because when the kids are home, the kitchen is a lot busier. Married 13 years this summer, their life has been filled with babies, birthdays and lots of love and laughter. However, between the mundane and the marvelous, a crisis that almost took it all away from them nearly eight years ago.

News 5 Cleveland
Apr 12, 2023

'Raising awareness is critical': Mother, doctor raise awareness about postpartum psychosis

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It’s a deeply scary experience to go from a rational brain one day to a totally irrational brain the next. The process of regaining wellness was a long one. There's getting out [of the hospital], and then there’s trying to make your way back to a new version of yourself. I really think what we need to teach people the most is how to manage their minds and their emotions, this art of being human.

Mass PPD Fund
February 1, 2023

An Interview with The Mass PPD Fund

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Believeland. The name that our fair city won as a result of decades of painful sports losses and Clevelanders who hand their hearts over open and beating season after season, often only to be broken in some new-but-eerily-familiar way. The perennial underdog.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer
September 9, 2020

The Trouble With Believeland

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The first time I heard the slogan “Defund the Police” my immediate reaction was to bristle a little. Fear took over my imagination. 

Scary Mommy
June 2020

It Was An Emergency… I Called The Therapist

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My just-turned-five-year-old looked at me and whined, “What are we going to do today, Mama?” I sipped my coffee and didn’t respond verbally. But my chest started to tighten and my blood pressure rose.

Scary Mommy
May 2020

Those Dark Voices Can’t Be Trusted. You Are Enough. 

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It’s the raw and honest account of my journey through postpartum psychosis — one of moving from living inside my head to learning to see the conditioning there that had run me ragged — to find freedom. It’s the story of nearly taking my own life to instead building a life worth living.

I’m working on getting my memoir published. 


My book is the story of how I went from being hijacked by voices to regaining my own.

I nearly lost everything.

Trying to ‘have it all’ 

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