Few stages of life are more associated with joy than pregnancy and childbirth. But for many women, feelings of anxiety, fear and depression counter and even overwhelm that joy. And for one Utah woman, a complicated mood disorder born of postpartum anxiety took her life and her ability to raise the beautiful children she d birthed.
Emily Cook Dyches, a devoted wife and mother of five, delivered her last baby a sweet, blue-eyed boy in 2015. Soon after going home, Dyches was diagnosed with postpartum depression and anxiety.
During their quest to find resources to support Emily, they discovered a system that was ill equipped to address Emily s symptoms in a specialized way. Emily s condition would eventually worsen and serve as the catalyst to her tragic death in 2016.