Chicago Woman's Suicide Prompts Rep. Bobby Rush To Push For Postpartum Bill

Jet, July 23, 2001

Melanie Stokes, a 41-year-old Chicago pharmaceutical sales manager who gave birth to her first child in February, recently plunged from the 12th-floor ledge of a Chicago hotel to her death as firefighters pleaded with her to not jump (JET, July 2).

Her tragic stow spurred Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) to introduce a bill to Congress to address the need for research and treatment for women like Stokes afflicted by postpartum depression and psychosis.

"As a young woman living a charmed life, Melanie had only future happiness before her," Rush said at a recent news conference at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. "Unfortunately, with the birth of her daughter, Melanie entered into a battle for her life with a devastating mood disorder known as postpartum psychosis. As we know, sadly, this disorder took her life."

Named in honor of Stokes, Rush's bill--the Melanie Stokes Postpartum Depression Research and Care Act of 2001--would establish grants to provide help for women afflicted by postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis and their families. The grants will fund screening, treatment and support services.

If approved, the bill would expand and intensify research on postpartum depression. The research will focus on discovering the causes of postpartum depression and developing improved methods of diagnosing and treating the illness.

Health experts say one in 1,000 new mothers suffer from postpartum psychosis, a rare, yet extremely severe mental illness marked by delusions and hallucinations, severe insomnia, extreme anxiety, paranoia, suicidal or homicidal thoughts and depression.

Additionally, at least one in 10 new mothers suffer with postpartum depression, a prolonged and pronounced mood disorder.

"I'm determined not to have Melanie and other women suffer silently and die in vain," Rush said, noting that the bill has received widespread Congressional support. "It is my hope that through this legislation, we can ensure that the birth of a child is a wonderful time for a new mother and her family. Postpartum depression must not steal the joy of a new life from America's families!"