This post may be upsetting if you are currently suffering from a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder.

A baby has died and a mother is charged with murder.

I hate writing about these things.  I’d almost rather pretend they haven’t happened.  Sonia Hermosillo, a mother of three who had apparently been treated for postpartum depression, threw her seven-month-old son off of a four-story parking garage.  Sadly, he passed away from his injuries yesterday.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Hermosillo’s husband, Noe Medina, is defending his wife:

“My wife was not in her five senses,” he said in Spanish through an interpreter. “She didn’t know what she was doing.”

Medina said his wife, Sonia Hermosillo, was suffering from postpartum depression and asked the public to refrain from judgment. He urged other women who might be suffering to seek help, calling it a “very serious problem.”

The vast majority of women with postpartum depression, as you know, do not harm their children.  We don’t know how severe Hermosillo’s illness was, or whether it was PPD or postpartum psychosis, or if there were other or additional issues at play.  News reports indicate she was hospitalized for postpartum depression at some point after the birth of her son, and had just seen a therapist for the very first time.

My heart breaks for the baby and for the entire family.

Following is a statement from Postpartum Support International president Lucy Puryear:

“We are always deeply saddened by the anguish and suffering a family endures when a woman is afflicted with a perinatal mood disorder.  Postpartum Support International is dedicated to raising awareness for the assessment and treatment of these mental illnesses by providing social support, education and access to qualified professionals in the field.  Our hearts and prayers are with Noe Medina, Sonia Hermosillo and their two other children, as well as their community, as they begin to cope with this heartbreaking tragedy.”