林赛·克兰西案审判凸显重新审视产后护理的必要性,倡导者称:“责任在于整个医疗体系”


2026年9月2日 / 美国东部时间下午3:51 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻

林赛·克兰西因杀害三名年幼子女受审一案,正在法庭外引发关于产后医疗保健及体系漏洞的讨论。

克兰西的辩方称,她在产后精神病发作后杀害了三名子女,这种严重病症会影响患者的现实感知能力;而控方则认为,她是有预谋地实施杀人行为,且清楚自己的所作所为是错误的。

克兰西的法律团队表示,她曾试图寻求帮助,但被过度用药,未能获得所需的护理。

据估计,每1000名产后人群中就有1人会患上产后精神病,这一案件引发了全美各地母亲的共鸣,让围产期情绪和焦虑障碍谱系以及许多女性缺乏相关资源的问题浮出水面。

围产期情绪和焦虑障碍是发生在怀孕期间及产后一年内的心理健康状况,包括抑郁症、焦虑症、双相情感障碍和产后精神病。据估计,总体而言,每5至7名女性中就有1人会受到此类病症的影响。

传统上,母亲会在产后约6周时与妇产科医生进行一次产后检查,接受身体检查并筛查心理健康问题。但此次随访之后,并没有标准的预约安排。

“我们不能仅在产后6周时为母亲做一次检查,就指望她能自行应对接下来12个月里出现的各种状况,”孕产妇健康倡导者、专注于围产期过渡辅导的组织“完整母亲”创始人妮可·库米说道。

美国妇产科医师学会建议女性在产后前三周内与孕产妇护理提供者取得联系,并在产后不晚于12周时进行一次全面的产后检查。该组织表示,护理应根据个体需求实现个性化和持续化。

“对我们的母亲们来说,这绝不是‘一次就诊就能一劳永逸’的事,”库米说,“她们会面临身体上的挑战,也会遭遇心理健康方面的问题。我认为,改革整个体系是我们的责任,我觉得这起案件会迫使体系采取行动。变革必须发生。”

身为一名母亲的库米认为,第一步是在女性尚未深陷产后心理困境之前,向她们普及产后心理健康的相关知识。

“我们通常指望母亲们能够识别出那些她们从未被教导过要去辨认的症状,”她说,“而一旦我们发现不对劲,又要在自身激素紊乱、需要照顾新生儿、可能还要照看其他孩子、睡眠不足且还要重返工作的情况下,去应对这个支离破碎甚至已经崩坏的体系。”

凭借自己产后隐瞒心理健康问题的经历,以及听闻其他母亲也有过类似遭遇,库米发起了“第四孕期项目”,为母亲们提供教育和支持。该项目还旨在创建一个母亲虚拟社区,让大家互相帮助。

库米和其他人表示,填补医疗保健缺口的关键在于将心理健康纳入母亲的治疗计划,并确保她们身边的人也了解情绪和焦虑障碍的征兆。

“心理健康护理应该贯穿于备孕、产前检查,尤其是产后阶段,”妇产科医生、女性健康诊所创始人卡米拉·菲利普斯博士在《哥伦比亚广播公司早间节目》中说道。

菲利普斯警告称,资金不足以及专攻孕产妇护理的医生数量减少,在最高法院推翻“罗伊诉韦德案”后情况进一步恶化。据倡导孕产妇医疗保健的非营利组织“出生缺陷基金会”称,美国有三分之一的县被视为“孕产妇护理荒漠”,即没有产科医生或分娩设施。

“我认为美国并没有关注女性健康领域正在发生的事情,”菲利普斯说,“如果我们现在不采取行动、不认真讨论这个至关重要的问题,这些孕产妇护理荒漠将在不久的将来让我们陷入困境。”

生殖精神病学家、纽约孕产妇心理健康治疗中心“母亲中心”的联合创始人凯瑟琳·伯恩多夫博士表示,谈论这些问题并非易事。

“就连谈论当母亲的难处都会让人感到恐惧,对吧?”她说,“社会希望我们为成为母亲感到无比自豪,认为这是发生在自己身上最棒的事,但事实上,这是一项巨大的挑战。两者并存:它既美好,又复杂且充满挑战。这种细微差别很难被理解,也很难说出口。”

库米希望,越来越多的母亲站出来发声,就能减少相关污名化。

“我认为现在比以往任何时候都有更多的人愿意接纳和理解这一点,所以我真心希望我们能借着这股势头,推动变革落地,”她说。

Lindsay Clancy trial highlights need to rethink postpartum care, advocates say: “The duty is on the system”

September 2, 2026 / 3:51 PM EDT / CBS News

The trial of Lindsay Clancy over the killings of her three young children is driving conversations outside the courtroom about postpartum healthcare — and gaps in the system.

Clancy’s defense says she killed her three children after suffering from postpartum psychosis, a severe condition affecting someone’s sense of reality, while the prosecution argued she planned the killings and knew what she was doing was wrong.

Clancy’s legal team says she tried to get help but was overmedicated and didn’t get the care she needed.

Postpartum psychosis is estimated to affect about one in 1,000 people after childbirth, and the case is resonating with moms across the country — bringing into focus the spectrum of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and the lack of resources for many women.

Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders are mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis, happening during pregnancy and up to a year after giving birth. Overall, they are estimated to affect one in every five to seven women.

Moms have traditionally had a postpartum appointment with an OB-GYN around six weeks after giving birth, where they receive a physical checkup and are screened for mental health issues. But following that visit, there isn’t a standard appointment schedule.

“We can’t just clear a mom at six weeks postpartum and expect her to figure out the rest of what’s going on for the next 12 months,” said Nicole Kumi, a maternal wellness advocate and founder of The Whole Mom, an organization focusing on perinatal transitional coaching.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends women have contact with a maternal care provider within the first three weeks postpartum and a comprehensive postpartum visit no later than 12 weeks after birth. The organization says care should be individualized and ongoing as needed.

“This is not a ‘one and done’ for our moms,” Kumi said. “She’s going to have physical challenges, she’s going to have mental health challenges, and I think the duty is on the system to revamp, and I feel like this case is going to put the system in a place where they have to act. Changes have to occur.”

The first step for Kumi, a mom herself, is educating women about what postpartum mental health can look like before they are in the thick of it.

“We routinely are expecting our moms to recognize the signs and symptoms that they were never taught to recognize in the first place,” she said. “Then once we identify that something is wrong, we’re expected to navigate this fragmented, if not broken, system while we’re hormonal, while we’re caring for a newborn, potentially other babies, sleep deprived and going back to work.”

Driven by her own experience hiding her mental health challenges during postpartum and hearing from other moms who did the same, Kumi started The 4th Trimester Program to provide education and support to moms. It also aims to create a virtual community of moms to help each other.

A key to filling the healthcare gap is making mental health part of a mom’s treatment plan and ensuring people around her also know the signs of mood and anxiety disorders, Kumi and others say.

“Mental health should be woven into your care before you have a baby, during your prenatal care and especially afterwards,” Dr. Kameelah Phillips, an OB-GYN and founder of a women’s health clinic, said on “CBS Mornings.”

Phillips warned about inadequate funding and a decline in doctors specializing in maternal care that worsened after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. One in three U.S. counties is considered a maternity care desert, meaning there are no obstetric clinicians or birthing facilities, according to March of Dimes, a nonprofit that advocates for maternal healthcare.

“I don’t think that America is paying attention to what’s happening in women’s health,” Phillips said. “These women’s health deserts are going to set us up for failure in the near future if we don’t start acting and talking about this really pivotal issue.”

Speaking up about these issues isn’t easy, said Dr. Catherine Birndorf, a reproductive psychiatrist and co-founder of The Motherhood Center, a maternal mental health treatment center in New York.

“There’s a lot of fear around even speaking ill of being a mother, right?” she said. “Society wants us to feel great about it, to be the best thing that ever happened, but in fact, it’s an enormous challenge. It is both/and. It is both wonderful and complicated and challenging, and that nuance is hard to hold and it’s hard to speak about.”

Kumi hopes the more moms who do speak up, the less stigma there will be.

“I think that there’s more of us that are welcoming and understanding of it now than ever before, so I really hope that we can lean into this momentum of driving home change,” she said.

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