The Lindsay Clancy Case, Understanding Postpartum Psychosis

Oprah Winfrey (0:06)

We heard from moms all over the country who've lived through postpartum psychosis. You thought hearing voices that were telling you to kill yourself and your children.

Brooke (0:16)

I had my son in the baby bath, and he began to cry in the bath. And I heard as if a man had walked up behind me and whispered in my right ear, it will stop if you hold him under the water.

Ayanna (0:27)

I started to hear what I called the voice of God.

Oprah Winfrey (0:29)

Did you say your daughter was the second coming of Jesus?

Brooke (0:31)

Oh, yeah.

Oprah Winfrey (0:31)

Meg Hamp is a labor and delivery nurse who worked with Lindsay Clancy for seven years. She testified on behalf of the defense. How would you describe Lindsay as a nurse, as a friend, as a mother? What was your first reaction when you heard that Lindsay Clancy had murdered her children?

Nicole Russell (0:56)

The breaking headline outside Boston tonight.

SPEAKER_5 (0:58)

It's a case that's captivating the country.

Oprah Winfrey (1:00)

This is a case that has subdivided people.

SPEAKER_6 (1:02)

I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked and I'm going to declare a mistrial.

Oprah Winfrey (1:08)

The 36-year-old mother, wife and nurse, Lindsay Clancy was charged with first-degree murder for strangling her three children to death. Her daughter Cora and two sons, Dawson and Callan.

After 21 days of testimony from more than 80 witnesses, the jury was not able to reach a unanimous decision. The prosecution has not yet announced if they will try the case again.

SPEAKER_7 (1:35)

Cora was into princesses.

Oprah Winfrey (1:39)

And the Chauvin.

Michelle Obermann (1:42)

Using the firefighters and trucks.

Dr. Camila Phillips (1:47)

And the Chauvin, the story.

Wagner (1:50)

It was just a happy baby.

Oprah Winfrey (1:52)

The defense argued Lindsay Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis and that despite repeated requests for help, Lindsay was overmedicated by doctors and was not provided proper psychiatric care.

SPEAKER_11 (2:04)

She was a darn good mother. Her mind was gone.

Oprah Winfrey (2:13)

The prosecution allege that Lindsay Clancy planned the murders and may have faked a suicide attempt that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

SPEAKER_12 (2:22)

She left them discarded on the basement floor like broken toys because she was done playing the game.

Oprah Winfrey (2:32)

The trial has divided our nation.

Dr. Camila Phillips (2:35)

Everybody failed that woman.

Nicole Russell (2:36)

I wholeheartedly think she did not do it.

SPEAKER_13 (2:40)

I care what any of you say.

SPEAKER_7 (2:41)

Lindsay Clancy is guilty.

SPEAKER_13 (2:42)

When I had postpartum psychosis, I had some of the scariest, darkest thoughts to the point where I knew I could not physically hold my baby. I had to give him to my husband. This is a topic that needs to go further than just this trial.

Oprah Winfrey (3:00)

I agree with that. That's why we're here. So thank you for joining me here on The Oprah Podcast, along with millions of other Americans and people all over the world. I, too, have been following the Lindsay Clancy case, and the loss of three innocent and defenseless little children who did not deserve to die that way is just too horrific to really comprehend. And no matter what the lawyers argue and the possible future jury decides, how can we begin to reconcile the senseless deaths of three precious children at the hands of their mother? This case is another flashpoint in America that has created yet another divide. And as we watch the country buckle under the weight of such an unfathomable act with all of the opinions and the speculations and the conspiracy theories and yes, a lot, a lot of vitriol on all sides. The question I want to ask is how did we get here? And how can we best use this moment, this watershed moment to honor the lives of Cora, five years old, Dawson, three years old, and Callan, who only lived eight months here on the planet Earth?

How can we do that and protect families and women and especially children? So let's just have a moment of silence to think about Cora, Dawson, and Callan.

Cora, Dawson, and Callan.

We come to Boston to have this conversation, and we're about 30 miles from Duxbury, Massachusetts, where on January 24, 2023, Cora, Dawson, and Callan were killed.

And I have to say, we're not here to retry Lindsay Clancy's case or debate the minute details or online theories. I've been talking to mothers who suffered from postpartum mental health issues now for decades. And way back when, when we first started having these conversations on The Oprah Winfrey Show as early as 1986, there was not even a language for it. Nobody called it anything except these women are monsters or these women are evil. And over the years, I've interviewed many, many, many mothers who have killed their children. And we can all see that the deaths of Cora, Dawson, and Callan have caused this national conversation to shift and erupt like never before. So that's why I wanted to bring together doctors and psychiatrists and legal scholars and journalists and parents here today to Boston to unpack what has been blowing up on social media, on your family text chains, at work, and in the school parking lot. And my intention here today is to ask this question. How can we, as a culture, as a society, do better? How do we use this moment to move ourselves forward and not just all of our opinions and yakking about it for something this big? Can you feel it? Something this big in the culture means the culture is supposed to shift. It feels to me like, you know, many other movements that I've witnessed, been old enough to witness, you know, when there was a time when people just drove drunk and they killed people and nobody said anything. And then what was created? The Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. And that movement really changed the way we looked at alcohol and the consumption of alcohol and alcoholism in this country. It changed the laws for driving. It saved so many lives. So today, we want to use this seminal moment to move forward. And I want to start by introducing Meg Hamp. She is a labor and delivery nurse who worked with Lindsay Clancy for seven years. And you may recognize Meg because she testified on behalf of the defense. And here's a short part of it.