This article discusses suicide and depression.
“She was the picture perfect mom,” says Tyler Sutton of his wife, Ariana. Though she died by suicide just nine days after her twin girls were born, he wants you to know that she loved being a mom and wanted her twins more than anything. She adored being a mother to their 4-year-old daughter, Melody, and says, Sutton, “Ariana was Melody’s favorite person in the world.”
Ariana Sutton’s tragic loss is sadly, the perfect example of how postpartum depression and psychosis are terrible thieves. It made Ariana believe her three daughters and husband were better off without her. It stole from her the knowledge that she was indeed, an amazing, loving, much-needed mother.
Tyler Sutton is bravely sharing his wife’s story in the hopes of saving other lives. You see, Ariana had postpartum depression after Melody’s birth, too. They battled it together. They got her help from a therapist and medication. They were prepared for it this time, he thought.
Still, he told TODAY, “I was very nervous. But being a mother was Ariana’s favorite thing in the world. And I thought if I stayed vigilant, everything would be OK the second time around.” They even had a plan in place, with Ariana seeing a psychologist weekly, and her OBGYN being aware of her history.
But when the twins, Everly and Rowan, were born a few weeks early, Ariana quickly spiraled. She had weaned herself off of her anti-depressants while pregnant with them, worried about it affecting her twins. That may have been a well-intentioned mistake. Tyler, who says the PPD took longer to affect her with Melody’s birth, was shocked at how fast it happened after the twins’ birth.
“I never dreamed this could happen. It came on so rapidly, and so suddenly,” he says.
Experts say the rapidity of the onset with Ariana this time could indicate postpartum psychosis, an obviously more intense and dangerous form of postpartum depression.