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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Life A Mother's Final, Inadvertent Act of Love for Her Child

Posted by David Schmader on Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 8:42 AM

Landing on her back. From the New York Daily News:

A Manhattan lawyer strapped her 10-month-old son to her chest and leaped to her death from an eighth-story window in Harlem on Wednesday—and the baby miraculously survived with little more than scratches, police sources said. Cynthia Wachenheim, 44, who left a suicide note castigating herself for being a bad mother, landed on her back after taking the fatal plunge. Baby Keston was in a harness. He bounced off his mom on impact and then rolled away from her motionless arms.

Pertinent details: Wachenheim was believed to have been suffering from postpartum depression. Also: "Wachenheim was convinced her baby had cerebral palsy, although doctors said there was nothing wrong with him."

Full tragic story here.

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She's not a cat, dude. She landed where she landed. Luck, not love.

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

on March 14, 2013 at 8:50 AM

@ 1, that's true, but David has earned his poetic license.

Posted by Matt from Denver on March 14, 2013 at 8:56 AM

When I worked at a psychiatric hospital, we'd get occasional postpartum depression patients.

The strangest was a postpartum psychosis patient though. She was totally mentally healthy, successful, happy, etc., until she had her kid, then she started hallucinating and hearing voices.

It only lasted a few weeks, but she was totally freaked out and so was her husband, who visited pretty much every day.

That was an interesting job.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on March 14, 2013 at 8:57 AM

She must have thought she was saving him. And could not survive the sacrifice herself. Only logical solution.

Postpartum is also usually the first manifestation of bipolar disorder in women. So not only do you get the completely unexpected psychosis, but then for the rest of your life you battle a chronic mental illness that until you had a baby you never had. So scary.

Posted by gnot on March 14, 2013 at 9:57 AM

do you see how hard is to kill someone if you don't have a gun?

Posted by Max Solomon on March 14, 2013 at 10:10 AM

There's always that point where you take on one more task than you're really capable of handling.

Posted by tiktok on March 14, 2013 at 10:14 AM

While she may have believed he had CP and the doctors said he did not, I wonder how much brain trauma and damage he sustained from the bounce. (Not to mention growing up knowing that his mother tried to kill him...)

@4 I think "logical" is perhaps not the best word here.

Posted by Allyn on March 14, 2013 at 10:27 AM

@2

No. She tried to kill her kid and failed. If she'd shot at the baby and missed, nobody would think that was some kind of act of love.

It's too bad. There's usually a lot of warning signs of postpartum depression. Thirteen page manifestos cum suicide notes and having antidepressants prescribed and whatnot. If only somebody had done a better job of getting her the help she needed.

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

on March 14, 2013 at 11:52 AM