Infanticide attempt by a postpartum depressed mother

ABSTRACT

To our knowledge, this is the first case report from an Arab culture of an infanticide attempt by a depressed mother towards her 4 month old infant. The attempt failed after intervention by a family member who noticed the mother covering up the face of the infant with multiple layers of blankets. She admitted to the infanticide attempt and was transported to the emergency room for assessment and treatment of her postpartum depression. The authors present this case to heighten awareness among physicians for the need for careful mental health assessment of their patients in the postpartum period. This becomes particularly critical for those women with known risk factors which increase their vulnerability for a serious infant-mother relationship disorder