The first few months of Pranaiya Oulapathorn's life as a new mom went pretty well, aside from a few not-uncommon hiccups. As Ivana Kottasová reports for CNN, Oulapathorn struggled with breastfeeding—supply and clogged ducts were recurring issues. The 37-year-old's British husband, Hamish Magoffin, says they finally decided to make the move to formula, thinking that would quell her anxiety. It didn't. The formerly rock-solid sleeper developed insomnia; she was stricken with depression; she started worrying her son wasn't developing properly. Four months after giving birth, Oulapathorn started telling her husband she wanted to disappear, or revert life to how it was before the baby had been born. Just before son Arthur turned six months old, Oulapathorn killed herself and her infant son while her husband showered in their Bangkok home.
Kottasová writes that "after their harrowing experience with postpartum depression, Magoffin has made it his goal to raise awareness" about the condition that more than 10% of women are thought to experience within the first year after giving birth. Kottasová details the steps Oulapathorn's family took to get her professional help. The first doctor instructed her to fill in the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale questionnaire and prescribed antidepressants based solely on those results. It didn't help. Hoping to find a doctor who wanted to hear the details of her experience, she was evaluated again in August, and this time was diagnosed with postpartum depression. She was prescribed antidepressants in higher doses as well as supplemental therapies. But her "dark thoughts persisted." (Read the full story.)
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