Exclusive | Horrific hallucinations told me to stab my daughter — the sad way Lindsay Clancy and I were both failed - New York Post

What the report says

The New York Post reported on Aaisha Alvi, an author who uses a pen name, describing past episodes of postpartum psychosis as the Massachusetts murder trial of Lindsay Clancy brings the condition into public focus. Alvi told the Post she once heard a voice commanding her to stab her 4-year-old daughter and saw violent images, but said she sought medical help because she did not want to harm anyone.

According to the Post, Alvi said her symptoms first appeared after giving birth in 2001 and included intense anxiety, depression, delusions about her family and frightening visual hallucinations. After a later miscarriage, she said the symptoms returned more severely. She and her husband described repeated attempts to get help, but Alvi said clinicians treated her distress as panic or grief and did not hospitalize her, even as she reported feeling driven toward “evil” acts.

The article connects Alvi’s account to Clancy, 36, who has pleaded not guilty in the deaths of her three young children in January 2023 and was left paralyzed after an apparent suicide attempt, the Post reported. Jury selection in Clancy’s trial began Monday, and her defense is expected to argue she had postpartum psychosis, while prosecutors say the killings were intentional.

The Post also cited perinatal psychiatrist Dr. Uruj Haider, who described postpartum psychosis as a rare but severe emergency that can worsen rapidly and be difficult to identify. The broader significance of the story is the question of whether medical systems recognize and respond quickly enough when postpartum mental health symptoms become psychotic.