Hollow Bones

Postpartum psychosis (PPP) is a rare but severe mental illness that can develop after childbirth, characterized by symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. The condition is considered a medical emergency, as research indicates that untreated PPP leads to a “4 percent chance of infanticide and a 5 percent chance of suicide” (440). In Hollow Bones, Eloise Ambrose develops PPP after her daughter Molly’s birth, experiencing delusions that she’s possessed by Satan and must kill Molly to save her soul. This reflects a common manifestation of the illness known as altruistic filicide, where a mother kills her child out of a distorted sense of love and protection. The novel directly references the real-world 2001 case of Andrea Yates, a Texas mother who drowned her five children. Like Eloise, Yates had PPP and believed she was saving her children from damnation. Yates was initially convicted of murder, but her conviction was overturned in 2006 when she was found not guilty by reason of “insanity.” Her case brought national attention to the legal and medical systems’ struggles in understanding PPP, a struggle mirrored in Eloise’s own journey. Eloise’s misdiagnosis and mistreatment, which worsen her psychosis, reflect the challenges that many patients face in receiving timely and appropriate care, as their symptoms are often dismissed or misidentified as the more common postpartum depression.