Egyptian mother likely killed her own children 'due to postpartum psychosis': expert

An Egyptian mother who killed her children earlier this week before attempting to take her own life likely suffers from postpartum psychosis, a psychologist has told The New Arab.   

In a heartbreaking incident that made international headlines, a 30-year-old woman slit the throats of her three children - the youngest a year old - before attempting to take her own life by throwing herself before a tractor. She survived, but sustained critical injuries.

The woman left a handwritten note to her husband, who works in Saudi Arabia, telling him that she had sent the children to paradise and would meet them there. She said in the note that despite her decent life, she had been left severely depressed after the birth of their third child.

"I was being tortured in life and wasn’t able to live [normally]," she wrote to her husband.  

The incident, which took place in a small village northwest of the capital Cairo on Monday, sparked debate nationwide. Some strongly condemned the mother, while others sympathised with the ordeal she said she was going through.

Counselling psychologist Dr Mervat El-Amary told The New Arab that what the mother had written in her note lined up with the symptoms of postpartum psychosis - a severe spell of mental illness that affects women after they have given birth.

"The symptoms of postpartum psychosis that some women undergo... include delusions, depression, and thoughts about hurting herself or her baby," Amary said.

"The mother probably had delusions - fixed beliefs that cannot be changed - that her children were suffering and she wanted to end their suffering. So she wanted to give them an easy exit and send them to heaven."

The absence of the woman's husband who worked overseas likely exacerbated her mental ill-health, Amary said.

Though the woman has been interrogated by the prosecution, she has not yet received any diagnoses.

“My assumptions are based on the available information made public by the media and the authorities," Amary said. "She needs to be examined and analysed thoroughly."

"The woman seemed to have been through a lot, leading her to such a state... There are missing parts in her story that can make the case clearer."