Inside the U.K.’s lifesaving treatment for postpartum psychosis

LONDON — Sofii Lewis knew something was deeply wrong within days of giving birth to her first child, Evie, in January 2023.

“I just didn’t have a bond with my daughter,” Lewis said. “I didn’t really want to be around her.”

Then the part-time baker became convinced that she or someone else might harm Evie. At night, a beeping sound — like that of a checkout till — haunted Lewis. She began to fear that someone was going to “buy Evie,” and she became “very suicidal,” said Lewis, who is now 27.

She also began to have thoughts of taking Evie’s life, in addition to her own.

“I know I certainly was hours, days away,” said Lewis, who lives in Aberdare, Wales.

Lewis believes that had she not received treatment within the U.K.’s trailblazing maternal mental healthcare system after being diagnosed with “tendencies of postpartum psychosis,” both she and Evie might not be alive today.

Lewis and other mothers she knows who have experienced maternal mental health struggles have been closely watching the case of Lindsay Clancy , who has been on trial for killing her three children after strangling them in their Duxbury, Massachusetts home in January 2023. Clancy ’s defense team has argued that she should not be held criminally responsible for her actions because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time.

“A lot of other mums I’m in contact with who had postpartum psychosis also find it very, very triggering,” Lewis, whose daughter was born the same month that Clancy killed her three children, said of the case. “Because that could have been any one of us who did that.”

It was receiving months of care at a Mother and Baby Unit that Lewis says may have saved both her and Evie’s lives. MBUs are specialist, inpatient units that treat women suffering from mental health issues during pregnancy and after the birth of their children in the U.K. That the service allows mothers to remain with their babies as they receive care instead of being separated deserves to be emulated elsewhere, experts and mothers say.

“I strongly believe if she’d been in the U.K., she would have been admitted to a Mother and Baby Unit and all three of her kids would still be alive today — and she would be absolutely fine,” Lewis said of Clancy.

‘Cradle’ of modern maternal healthcare

Veerle Bergink, a psychiatrist, said she agreed that Clancy’s case might have ended differently had she been treated at one of the U.K.’s National Health Service MBUs.

“Lindsay Clancy had a severe postpartum mental illness,” said Bergink, who is the Director of Mount Sinai’s Women’s Mental Health Center in New York. “And she did not get the right treatment.”

The U.K., she said, is considered by many in the field as “the cradle” of modern maternal mental healthcare.” Meanwhile, the U.S. “is behind in knowledge about perinatal psychiatry,” with limited options for treatment for serious conditions like postpartum psychosis in America’s fragmented healthcare system, she said.

According to Bergink, Britain’s MBU approach is “without a doubt” the best way to treat postpartum psychosis.

According to the National Health Service, or NHS, up to 26% of new and expectant mothers experience perinatal mental health illness, which covers a wide range of conditions. In 2025 alone, it says on its website that more than 66,000 women accessed specialist community-based care and support for perinatal mental health issues.

Symptoms of postpartum psychosis, which falls under that umbrella, can start within the first two weeks after birth, or later. Symptoms and their severity can vary widely and include delusions, hallucinations, mania, confusion and other signs.

Suicide linked to the condition is rare and infanticide is even rarer, emphasizes Action on Postpartum Psychosis, or APP, a British charity. Of around 1,200 cases of postpartum psychosis identified in the U.K. each year, around 1 to 5 are linked to cases of suicide, according to the organization. In the decade up to 2021, less than 0.05% resulted in infanticide, it said, though it noted that the exact numbers can be difficult to quantify.

Clancy’s defense team outlined how she had repeatedly sought mental health care , including seeing psychiatrists, calling a suicide hotline and being hospitalized, before fatally strangling her three children and then trying to take her own life. Prosecutors argue that she took deliberate and premeditated steps to kill her children and was aware that her actions were wrong. The jury in her trial has been deadlocked for five days and was due to resume deliberations on Thursday.

Her trial has drawn international attention and sparked an unprecedented dialogue in the U.S. around postpartum psychosis and the need for better access to maternal mental healthcare.

Lewis said she shared her symptoms with a private counsellor whom she had sought support from in the past.

Her counsellor acted swiftly to contact a crisis team within the National Health Service, or the NHS, the U.K.’s public healthcare system, and within days Lewis and Evie were admitted to a Mother and Baby Unit.

Lewis said the care she received within the MBU over the course of five months likely saved both of their lives.

According to Bergink, the MBU approach is “without a doubt” the best way to treat postpartum psychosis.

‘Incredible progress’

While some countries have similar inpatient programming for mothers suffering maternal mental health issues, the scale of Britain’s MBU program is “pretty unique to the U.K.,” Dr. Sally Wilson, the National Training Coordinator for APP, said in a phone interview Wednesday, with the NHS, she said, making “incredible progress, particularly over the last 10 years” in addressing the realities of postpartum psychosis.

There are about 20 units in England, with at least two in Scotland and one in Wales, according to APP, which has been campaigning for the expansion of the program. While a handful of countries have similar programming, Wilson said few initiatives are as comprehensive as the U.K.’s.

In the U.S. there is no nationwide system offering inpatient care for mothers and babies comparable to the U.K.’s network of MBUs, though some hospitals and clinics do offer specialized perinatal psychiatric care.

Wilson, who joined APP after receiving what she described as lifesaving support from the organization during her own struggle with postpartum psychosis, said the development of the MBU program stemmed from prominent perinatal psychiatrists, as well as survivors, advocating for more awareness and specified treatment for the condition, as well as for broader maternal mental healthcare.

Treatment plans within MBUs can vary and can include medication, with patients sometimes spending weeks to months at the facilities.

Lewis, who now volunteers with APP as a peer supporter, said she benefited from two particular therapies during her treatment in particular, including Video Interaction Guidance, or VIG, therapy, in which video is captured of a parent interacting with their baby to be played back, highlighting the positive moments of connection they have with their infant.

She said she also benefited from Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, therapy, a treatment designed to alleviate the distress associated with trauma.

Once the two were discharged, she continued to receive care through a perinatal community team and recovered from her symptoms day by day.

Still, both Lewis and Wilson say that there is much work to be done, both in the U.K. and around the world, raise awareness around the realities and signs of postpartum psychosis, as well as a need for greater resources for and access to maternal mental healthcare, including to MBUs

Lewis said she wanted survivors of postpartum psychosis to know, “it doesn’t make you a bad person.”

“It doesn’t make you a bad mum, a bad wife, a bad partner,” she said. “It’s just part of the illness that you have at that time.”

If you are pregnant or a new mother and you are in crisis, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline provides free, confidential support 24/7 in English and Spanish. Call or text the hotline at 1-833-852-6262

If you or someone you know is struggling or in emotional distress, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7, to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For additional resources, visit https://SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources/ .