Mother of Drowned Babies Found Dead ... Dangers of Post Partum Depression

                  The identity of Lisa Gibson, the mother of two young children found dead on Coleridge Park Drive, was confirmed as the body police pulled from the Red River Saturday.              

An officer enters the  Red River Friday  to retrieve a body  from a park across the street from the Gibson home.                

                

The body that was recovered in the Red River Saturday morning has been confirmed as Lisa Gibson, the 32-year-old woman who fled from her Westwood home on Wednesday, leaving her toddler and infant unresponsive in a bathtub.

Gibson's body was found south of the Alexander Docks. Police had been searching for Gibson around the family’s Westwood home until her body was discovered shortly after 9:30 a.m. Several canoes and kayaks were on the river at the time for a paddling event when Gibson's body was found. Paddlers, many of them teenagers, could be seen hugging and crying as police worked to pull the body from the water.

"An autopsy has been completed, the investigation is ongoing,"said Cst. Eric Hofley, adding few other details to a tragedy that has hung over the city since this week's horrific discovery.
"It’s a most difficult time for everybody involved, of course foremost for the Gibson family, their extended family and friends," said Cst. Hofley. "This type of tragedy will affect people in different ways."

Cst. Hofley said the Gibson family is now requesting privacy. It has been speculated Gibson is responsible for the incident but officers aren’t ruling out any possibilities. Gibson was recently diagnosed with postpartum depression and was the last person who was with the children on Wednesday morning.
"On behalf of the Gibson family, the Winnipeg police service would like to take the time to thank the public and the media for their assistance and support during this difficult time," said Cst. Hofley. "When tragedy of this magnitude happens to someone in our community all of us are deeply affected by it.

Gibson had been missing since Wednesday when her two young children were found in critical condition in their house. The two-year-old girl and three-month-old baby boy died in hospital. Police are not releasing the cause of death at this point despite an autopsy having being conducted. The consensus of public opinion is that the children were drowned by their mother who suffered from post partum depression ( A state of deep depression which affects some women after the birth of their baby...sometimes ascribed to the changes in the levels of their hormones)

Gibson's open Facebook page, which has since been restricted, was full of happy pictures of her two children: curly-haired toddler Anna and infant Nicholas. The page included a family photo that appeared to be taken at a hospital shortly after the birth of Nicholas in April, along with a proud birth announcement.
The last posting was mid-June — a picture of Anna with the caption reading: "Man I love this kid.''

Post Partum Depression...A Very Real Illness


Nicole Gamble, a registered nurse and volunteer facilitator of a post partum depression support group at the Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba, with her 16-month old son Oliver in their West End home.

Lisa Gibson, the mother of two children who were found drowned in a bathtub earlier this week, was known to  have suffered from post partum depression.                          

Two young children  were drowned in a bathtub Wednesday and the body of their mother was found in the local river on Saturday . This unspeakable drama deeply affected the founder of Manitoba's first and only support group for mothers suffering from postpartum depression, formed just four months ago.

 Nicole Gamble was watching the horrific news break while sitting on the couch of her Crestview home, with 16-month-old son Oliver on her lap.
"I was gut-wrenched, completely gut-wrenched," said Gamble. "I immediately thought, 'Oh, man, this sounds like postpartum psychosis, which is a complete break with reality. The mothers who are experiencing this don't have any concept of reality. It's an absolute hell. I know this is hard to take, but they can't be held accountable for their actions. My heart just goes out to the whole family.

Gamble is a nurse who recently founded a postpartum depression group that holds bi-monthly meetings at the Mood Disorder Association of Manitoba's offices at the Fort Garry Hotel. Gamble's motivation was straightforward: After giving birth to Oliver, she had difficulty sleeping. She felt detached from her baby boy. She was nervous and anxious. Eventually, she began to get "graphic, horrific visions" of harm coming to her son. That's when Gamble knew she was in trouble.
"Being a nurse, I thought I would be immune to postpartum depression because I knew the warning signs," she said. "But it doesn't matter how prepared you are or how well-educated you are, postpartum depression doesn't discriminate. No one chooses PPD -- it chooses you."

Gamble's journey had just begun, though. It was difficult to get appointments with her family doctor. The waiting lists for therapy were too long for immediate treatment. And there was nothing in the way of a tangible support system locally. "Part of my goal after navigating the system and running into problem after problem... I decided to come up with a support group on my own," Gamble said.

Gamble says the fledgling group is small because of a lack of funding and public awareness. They are now posting information on meeting times and workshops on the MDAM website (www.mooddisordermanitoba.ca).
"They call it suffering in silence for a reason," she said. "It's time we talk about the elephant in the room."

But while the tragedy in Westwood might generate awareness about PPD, Gamble is concerned it might -- at least for some women -- exacerbate the stigma already attached to the illness "as they hold illogical fears they may be the next gruesome case."
"This is just an unfortunate part of the illness and something I personally also feared, even though I knew I would not hurt my child," noted Gamble, who was diagnosed with depression, not the more rare case of psychosis.
"Your judgment and rationale when battling PPD is drastically skewed. This is why it is important to get the correct information out there to the public, so that if they know a mother with children under the age of two years who is struggling, they can help her see that it is OK to get help.
"That she is not alone and that just because she may have PPD, she is not a bad mother."

As many as one-in-five women suffers some form of PPD. Gamble believes that number is "underestimated" because of women who are reluctant to report symptoms.
Gamble said there are must-see websites such as the Postpartum Depression Awareness Project, Postpartum Support International and Katherine Stone's Postpartum Progress blog. ("She's the PPD guru of the blog world," Gamble said.)

What should mothers who might be feeling symptoms of PPD (the extreme form being psychosis) do? Be honest with others and yourself, Gamble said.
"First and foremost they need to be open with their public health nurse, their doctors," she said. "A lot of women are withholding what they're actually feeling, what their symptoms truly are, because they're scared of getting their children taken away. Or because of guilt or shame.
There's so much stress and pressure out there for moms these days to meet those (model) expectations," Gamble said. "When they lack even slightly there's a tremendous amount of guilt and shame that comes with that. It's like a death grip that holds on to you as tight as it can. I was one of the fortunate ones.... but as we can see with recent events, not all women come through this."