While the whole world was celebrating the spirit of Christmas and hope, this mother lost her battle against the silent killer – Depression.
This dreadful incident that happened in Lucknow, sent chills down the spine and gave a dreading reminder of what the silent killer – depression – can do to new moms.
A new mother undergoing depression strangulated her three-month-old daughter on Tuesday (25th December) morning in her apartment in Faridinagar.
As per police, the woman Shubhra, 32, took this extreme step due to her mental condition and has been taken into custody. She has been booked for murder on the complaint of her husband Brijnandan Tiwari.
According to Tiwari’s statement,
“On Monday night, Shubhra went to sleep in another room with the baby, Advika, which as unusual. Around 6:30 am (on Tuesday), I woke up and found that Shubhra had locked the door from inside. When I knocked, she opened the door and said she had killed Advika and freed me of a financial burden.”
As Advika wasn’t responsive, the husband rushed her to a private hospital but it was too late. The hospital authorities declared her brought dead.
Shubhra has been detained and the arrangements have been made to examine her mental condition by a team of doctors.
Shubhra and Tiwari had a love marriage in 2009. During 9 years of marriage, Shubhra had 2 miscarriages which shook her. Three months ago, the couple was blessed with a girl child. However, soon after that she started behaving in a strange manner – being too worried for her daughter.
Tiwari further shared it with TOI:
“Though I earned enough as an engineer in a private company in Gujarat, she considered it to be insufficient for Advika’s future. I even had savings from my earlier job in Dubai… The anxiety led to acute depression, I left my job last month to come to Lucknow to take care of her and Advika”
However, Shubra had a different viewpoint on the financial condition of the family.
She told TOI that their financial condition was poor and that the family was dependent on her mother-in-law’s pension. She wanted good schooling for her daughter and that was not possible with the limited family income.
Shubra holds an MSc degree in anthropology and tried to apply for a job but couldn’t. She believed she was left with no other option but to take the life of her 3-months-old daughter.
As we publish Shubra’s story, I For Her team wonders how many more stories society needs to hear to take PPD – Postpartum Depression seriously.
There is very little awareness about what PPD could do to a new mother.
It causes new mothers to feel anger, frustration and great sadness, which they express either through an inability to care for the child or even sometimes, violence towards the child.
Read: Mother Throws Newborn Into Lake: Police Suspects Postpartum Depression To Be Blamed
While PPD is mainly triggered by a hormonal imbalance in the body after childbirth, but it can also be triggered by painful or complicated pregnancies, stress, tension with the husband or in-laws, financial difficulties and other health issues.
Lack of awareness makes it difficult for women and their families to notice it.
As per The New India Express, Dr. R Mangala of SCARF (Schizophrenia Research Foundation) shared:
“Women do not approach doctors regarding PPD. It is the family that mostly brings women for treatment, that too when they notice changes in behaviour that were unacceptable”
Given how we Indians value mother-child relationship, we wish families start taking PPD seriously. After Shubra’s story we are left with so many what-ifs and why?
If her husband knew that she was feeling too worried about her daughter, why didn’t he take her to a specialist who could help her?
What if he would have?
What if Shubra could have got some professional help rather than left alone to suffer in silence?
We don’t want to blame anyone but it’s a high time that families and new mothers start focusing on their health and fight out PPD.
If you know someone who is acting strange or showing the signs of PPD, please intervene.
Depression can be controlled if intervened at the right time without letting it dig deeper roots into a mothers’ minds.
You Might Also Like:
https://www.iforher.com/deepika-emotional-letter-on-depression-need-to-take-it-seriously/
