On the morning of November 11, a 36-year-old woman with two young children fell out of a window on the 9th floor of a residential building in north-west Moscow. Mother and daughter died on the spot, the eldest son miraculously survived, doctors are fighting for his life.
According to preliminary data, the woman suffered from postpartum depression. Medical Note contacted the psychologist Lyubov Voskresenskaya and found out what could have caused this terrible tragedy.
In Moscow, the circumstances of the death of 36-year-old Lyudmila Sokolova and her daughter are being established. The woman fell out of the window with her two children - the eldest son miraculously survived, now he is in intensive care. According to various sources, the girl was from nine months to one and a half years old, and the boy was six years old.
Lyudmila lived with her husband Vitaly, according to neighbors, the family looked prosperous. Before her death, the woman called an ambulance four times, informing that her daughter was ill from hunger, as she refuses breast milk.
In the ambulance, the woman was given oral advice and advised to call the pediatrician home. A minute before Sokolova's death, she called the ambulance for the last time. Nobody opened the door to the brigade that arrived by subway.
The Investigative Committee in Moscow reported that a suicide note was found in the apartment. Lyudmila asks not to blame her husband for what happened.
The wife of the deceased was hospitalized in a state of shock after he arrived at the scene of the tragedy.
According to some reports, the woman suffered from postpartum depression. According to her husband, Lyudmila began to think about death after the birth of her daughter.
The editors of Medical Note contacted the psychologist Lyubov Voskresenskaya and asked the specialist to give his assessment of what had happened.
Specialist comments
Lyubov Voskresenskaya, psychologist:
Suicide is almost always a consequence of a severe psychological crisis that accumulates over a long time. Internal tension constantly increases, anxiety intensifies, gradually a feeling of hopelessness, hopelessness comes.
The perception of the surrounding reality as a whole is violated, the consciousness is narrowed to such an extent that only gloomy thoughts become available. Such a state is so difficult, oppressive and unbearable that neither a person's previous life experience, nor psychological resources can "prompt" another, constructive way out of the prevailing circumstances.
In the case of mothers who decide to end their life, dramatic hormonal changes in the body, the manifestation of which can usually be observed by relatives and friends, have a great influence on behavior. These are increased irritability, emotional instability, depressed mood, decreased appetite, self-doubt, low self-esteem, etc.
In addition, the worries associated with the constant care of the baby, the difficulties of breastfeeding, the worries that the baby does not have enough milk, intensify to the point of fear that he may "die of hunger." A woman is oppressed by the thought that she is not capable of being a good mother, that she will not cope.
In addition, there are certain personality characteristics that indicate a tendency to commit suicidal acts. This impulsivity, increased anxiety, combined with a tendency to melancholy, depression.
Sometimes, in order to help a woman who finds herself in a similar situation, it is enough just to listen to her, without judgments and evaluations. Emotional stress can already be reduced.
It is important for relatives to be attentive to the psychological state of a young mother, support her, help with housework, caring for the baby, and convince her that she will definitely cope.
