Diploma in Child Protection Studies
Fatal Depression
Yvonne Martin
The case of a Blenheim mother who stabbed her baby boy to death with a kitchen knife has shocked
the country. So why did she do it?
On 8 August 1998, father-of- two Brian* left his Blenheim home for half an hour to take his daughter
shopping and drop his mum at a friend’s house.
When he returned, his wife Jan* was in the kitchen, putting on hand cream. He asked if she’d put their
eight-month-old son Michael* to sleep. “No,” she told him. “I killed him.”
Brian found the body of their baby boy tucked beneath the duvet cover of the bed in the master
bedroom. Michael had been stabbed 31 times in the chest and neck with a kitchen knife.
Last month, a jury in Christchurch High Court took just 30 minutes to find Jan not guilty of murder due
to insanity caused by childbirth. The Crown, as well as the defence team and the judge, Justice
Chisholm, urged the mainly female jury to return this verdict after hearing compelling evidence about
how having babies triggered postnatal psychosis and resulted in Jan killing her son. Although Jan (36)
had suffered postnatal psychosis after the birth of their first baby, the last thing Brian expected was she
would hurt one of their children.
“I would never imagine she would have done that,” he says. “The problem is you don’t know what a
person is feeling when you can’t communicate with them any more. You lose touch.”
The professional couple, who both worked in the health industry, met over-seas in1986. They married
five years later and moved to Blenheim, enjoying the lifestyle there. But their idyllic existence ended
when they had their first baby, a girl born in April 1993. The insidious depression Jan had suffered as a
20-year-old returned in the form of postnatal psychosis and she couldn’t shake it.
“I’d heard of postnatal depression but not postnatal psychosis,” Brian says. “It can have quite different
presentations.”
But how did this childbirth turn this shy, quiet and nervous woman into a killer? In court, psychiatrists
spoke of trauma Jan suffered in her own childhood but the details have been suppressed. They also
painted a graphic picture – from interviews with the couple – of Jan’s downward spiral after giving birth.
Even before having a baby, she was anxious and panicky, fretting about her ability to be a mother.
Her first delivery was difficult and prolonged and she had problems bonding with her daughter. A month
later, she became deeply depressed and psychotic.
Jan told a psychologist who visited their home during a crisis she harboured thoughts of harming her
new born. She dreaded her husband going to sleep, for fear she may act on them.
Mother and baby were checked into hospital, where they could be monitored. Jan’s condition improved
and she went home.
Her second pregnancy was unplanned but she and Brian decided to go ahead with it. Forewarned by her
illness after the birth of their daughter, they made plans to avoid a recurrence, including contacting a
team of mental health workers from their community.
Michael’s birth in December 1997 went well, despite it being a breech birth. Delighted and proud, Jan
bonded easily with her baby this time.
She had one panic attack early on, when she told her husband “blackness was coming down”, but they
managed without outside help.
However, in early June last year, Jan’s mental state began to unravel. Brian received a toll call from a
woman he met while on a course in Thailand and, despite his assurances the woman posed no threat to
their marriage, Jan became frantic. She sank deeper and deeper into the black hole of depression.
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Diploma in Child Protection Studies
The couple moved into separate rooms but Jan wasn’t sleeping or taking the medication her doctors
prescribed. In the week before the tragedy, Brian noticed she was less careful in handling Michael. She
told him, “ I have destroyed (our son). I have emotionally damaged him.” She added that her brain didn’t
“go” any more.
Early on 8 August, Jan told her husband she “had destroyed everything” and wanted to stay in bed. He
felt anxious about going out but she assured him it was okay.
The court heard Jan thought of suicide but her mind turned to her son. Attacking him would be like
killing part of herself, she told psychiatrists later. Besides his soul would live on, she figured, and she
wouldn’t have to be a mother any more.
After stabbing her son in the bedroom, she took a shower, washed the knife and packed a bag of
clothes, knowing she would be leaving home.
Jan was subsequently arrested and admitted to Sunnyside Hospital, a psychiatric centre in
Christchurch. Consultant psychiatrist Dr Philip Brinded told the court that, at the moment Jan killed
Michael, she was unaware it was morally wrong.
“She said it was the right thing to do at the time. It would relieve her of her terror that she might attack
the child and her torment would be over,” he said. “Her distress was so severe it numbed her.”
Jan told Dr Brinded she loved her son and didn’t mean to kill him. He was a “wonderful” boy and
deserved to live. “The problem was he was sent to the wrong mother,” she said. She would never be
able to raise him properly.
Jan’s now in the care of two doctors at Sunnyside Hospital. Brian and their daughter visit monthly.
“She’s very attached to her daughter,” he says. “That’s the only thing keeping her going.”
He’s unsure if his wife will ever recover from her illness. “You have to be extremely strong to get out of
that.”
Brian’s also unsure about his own future and has put off scattering his son’s ashes until he feels sure
where “home” is. His ordeal has inevitably changed his perspective on life, he says. “ You realise in the
end the only time which is important in life is the present moment. You don’t know what’s going to be
there tomorrow.”
*Jan and her family have been granted final name suppression. False names have been used.
WHAT’S POSTNATAL PSYCHOSIS?
Postnatal psychosis is a severe form of postnatal distress, which, fortunately, is rare, affecting only one
in 500 mothers. Unlike those with postnatal depression or the milder “baby blues”, mothers with
psychosis lose touch with reality. Symptoms include racing thoughts; frantic, excessive energy; elevated
moods; delusions and hallucinations; paranoia; suicidal thoughts and hostility towards the baby or
family.
Nobody knows for sure what causes psychosis but research suggests it may be social, psychological or
hormonal factors. Mothers need professional support and treatment with medication. Success rates are
high, particularly if treatment is sought early.
Maternal mental health teams are available at Greenlane Hospital, Otara and through Waitemata
Health in the Auckland region. Capital Coast Health in Wellington and Princess Margaret Hospital in
Christchurch also offer services.
Source: New Zealand Woman’s Weekly May 3 1999
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