NZ has been failing mothers who struggle with their mental health for generations

The useful part

This article discusses suicide In Pukekohe in 1897, my great-great-great grandmother Sarah died while her horrified children watched on. Her family had battled to get her help for years and her older children had monitored her 24/7. From the age of 17, she had given birth to 12 children, two of whom died in infancy.

How it works

• The coroner ruled temporary insanity, going to great lengths to explain that she did not have the capacity to comprehend what she was doing.
• Many years later, Sarah's granddaughter (my great grandmother), who was born eight years after she died, had her own experience of severe post-partum depression after giving birth to five children.
• She was quickly evacuated and the facility that was to help her was completely destroyed.
• Her 97-year-old daughter, my grandmother, told me this for the first time the other day as we sat talking.
• Her mother went straight back to parenting duties and her illness was never mentioned again.

Details worth keeping

She asks why New Zealand still doesn't give mothers the support they need. Her adult daughter had tried to stop her but it was too late.