Case Lab · Type A · Foundation

F53

Three weeks after the birth, a frightening change

Three weeks after childbirth, a woman's partner reports she has become increasingly withdrawn, is not sleeping even when the baby sleeps, and has developed a fixed, unshakeable belief that the baby has been 'secretly replaced' and is not really theirs. She appears frightened and confused. In the first week after birth she had brief tearful episodes that resolved within a few days, but this current presentation is a marked and rapid change from that.