The Fourth Trimester

Bodies

KCRW, Allison Behringer

Health & Fitness

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jess was overjoyed when she got pregnant. But after giving birth, her reality spiraled out of control. She didn’t know it, but she had postpartum psychosis, a mental health condition that occurs after about 1 in every 500 births.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I dreamed of being a mom for so long.
0:09.9	I was so excited to have that connection, but like, I couldn't control the things that
0:16.4	were happening to my brain.
0:20.9	This is Jessica Pearson.
0:22.6	She goes by Jess.
0:24.6	Eight years ago, something happened to Jess that she had never heard of before.
0:29.2	No one in her family had either.
0:31.7	It's a mental health condition called postpartum psychosis.
0:35.6	It occurs in about one out of every 500 births, though some healthcare providers think it
0:40.8	might be more common than that.
0:43.0	When it's not treated properly, the consequences can be disastrous and long-lasting.
0:48.7	Over the course of reporting this episode, myself and the team spoke to over 20 people
0:53.3	who'd had postpartum psychosis, and we heard the same thing over and over again.
0:58.7	I just didn't know how did I not know about this.
1:03.4	Today Jess shares her journey through illness and guilt, and her search for absolution within
1:09.1	herself.
1:12.2	From KCRW, this is Bodies.
1:14.8	I'm Alison Berencher, and a heads up that this episode contains discussion of suicidal
1:20.0	ideation and violent thoughts, and a description of involuntary commitment.
1:29.6	Jess always wanted to have a big family.
1:33.4	She imagined the fun things that she would do with her kids in the future, like taking
1:37.2	them roller skating.
	...

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