WARNING: This post deals with a severe form of post-natal depression. Anyone who feels it may be distressing for them may wish to avoid reading the details.
For Amy Black breaking point came on September 1 2013.
For anyone who knew her it was obvious Amy was struggling with being a new Mum.
But no one could predict it would come to this.
No one could see just how dire the situation was.
Amy Black’s story is one of unimaginable pain and suffering. How anyone could get to this point is a tragedy in itself.
The new Mum was 39 when she gave birth to her daughter Zoe. She was an American living in the UK, and married to a British man.
There was speculation she was lonely.
Speculation she was not coping.
Speculation she was close to suicide.
But on September 1 2013 she went beyond what those around her ever thought possible, she drowned her seven-month old daughter Zoe.
Baby Zoe had been screaming with an ear infection- she had not slept.
We all know it. We’ve all been there with young babies. It is a right-to-the-bone-tiredness, a brain numbness. A minute-to-minute struggle to get through the night,
But for Amy Black it was more.
It was a desperate form of post-natal depression that blanketed her ability to fight her way out of the fog.
The way Amy drowned her seven-month old is still unclear. But those details aren’t necessary.
What is clear is that she was captured by CCTV cameras climbing an eight-foot fence clutching her wet daughter’s body and tipping the baby into the undergrowth of a factory next door dumping her into a car park.
What is clear is that only two hours beforehand she was captured by the same CCTV cameras tending lovingly to her baby daughter as she tossed in her cot.
In a UK court the troubled mother has pleaded guilty to infanticide.
Evidence was presented that the day before the baby’s murder Amy took her to a hotel two hours away in Ealing. She was tracked down by police and they were returned home.
The prosecutor, Timothy Spencer QC said there was evidence to show that in the months leading up to the baby’s death Amy Black’s mind was ‘significantly disturbed’.
The Nottingham Post writes that the court heard the “balance of her mind was disturbed, because she had not fully recovered from giving birth.”
Mr Spencer said Zoe died when her mother was, in the view of two psychiatrists, “significantly mentally disturbed”.
He told the Judge “I make it plain the Crown will not seek to litigate either murder or manslaughter in this case.”
Evidence was presented of how moments after her daughter dropped to the ground of the car park Amy climbed down into the undergrowth and stood alone with a knife cutting at her face.
Her 70-year old husband, who was not in court to hear his wife plead guilty, told detectives that Amy suffered from paranoia after their daughter was born. He said she belied she was segregated from the neighbours and deliberately ignored because she was American.
The Daily Mail report that “she also developed a worsening dislike for their bungalow, claiming the television was telling her ‘to do specific things’ such as leave the UK. She went on to tell her husband that he was a UK government employee who had been placed in their home ‘to spy on her’.”
Amy Black refused to speak to Police during their interviews, and it is reported that she cried at times during the hearing.
The case has been adjourned until April.
Our hearts break for both Zoe and her fragile Mother – to whom we can only hope finds some semblance of peace and some form of recovery.
Post-natal depression and infanticide:
- Postnatal depression affects 10 to 15 per cent of women.
- Women are 23 per cent more likely to be admitted to a psychiatric unit in the 18 months after giving birth than at any other time in their lives.
- Suicide is a leading cause of maternal death.
- The most serious form of maternal depression affects around one in 500 new mothers. Although rare, the condition has been associated with suicide and infanticide.
If you or anyone you know needs help please contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or PANDA (Post and antenatal depression Association) on 1300 726 306
Top Comments
Where was the father? Why didnt't he get help?
Completely tragic and it sounds like classic post-partum psychosis. I can't help but think that regular visits from maternal child and health nurses (or their UK equivalent) might have spotted this ("hearing voices from the TV urging her to do things" - one of the biggest hallmarks of psychosis and schizophrenia.) But it's also not my place to judge. My experience with MHCN in Australia has been pretty good, so I'd like to think it wouldn't happen here.