PLYMOUTH — Each day the trial of Lindsay Clancy resumes, a small group of spectators, mostly women, settles among the gallery to bear silent witness on behalf of mothers who have struggled with their mental health after giving birth.
Some worked in the health care field; others include an airline employee, a stay-at-home mom, a real estate agent, and a retiree. Almost all are mothers from New England who are spending their free time at the courthouse because they, or someone they cared about, experienced postpartum anxiety, depression, or other perinatal mental health conditions and feel it is important to humanize the Clancy family’s story.
“I find myself resonating with Lindsay herself, from what we’re learning about her and what she went through,” said Sarah Baroud, 43, a licensed clinical social worker with two children who struggled with postpartum depression after the birth of her first child, and postpartum anxiety with the second. She said she had attended three days of the trial.
Baroud and the others at the Clancy trial differ from the crowds outside recent headline-grabbing court cases. Instead of the hundreds of cheering demonstrators who carried signs and shouted over speakers outside Karen Read’s trial, the scene outside the Plymouth courthouse this week was fairly quiet. There was one person with a sign; it read, “We [love] and support you Lindsay.”
Other supporters have organized on social media, creating a web page where people can leave messages for Clancy. They are also staging a Stand in Peace for Lindsay gathering on Thursday morning outside the Plymouth courthouse, and are encouraging others to hold similar assemblies elsewhere.
During breaks in the Clancy trial, the group would share pictures of their children and talk about their own struggles with motherhood and mental health or what they saw as gaps in the health care system.
Yet, like many who attended the Karen Read trial, some had a sense that the woman at the center of the case was subjected to an unfair attack on her personal character designed to maximize the more sensational details, rather than address systemic problems underlying the case.
“With the Karen Read case, that got everybody in Massachusetts to really open their eyes to what’s going on in our state,” said Suzanne Murdoch, 64, from Brockton. “You look at all of this now with Clancy, and it’s like, the witch hunt in Massachusetts never ended.”
Murdoch said she had taken many of the medications prescribed to Clancy throughout the course of her struggles with mental illness, and knew “how quickly you can go downhill if you don’t take them.”
“Being local and just having a different understanding due to my past and current struggles with mental health, I felt like it was important for me to be here,” she said.
Mel Lynch, 64, drove from her home in Norwood to show support because she felt the trial was being sensationalized online.
“These are real people. Her parents are grieving. Her nurses are there behind her, supporting her. What drew me here is the humanity. It’s all these women,” said Lynch, gesturing to the women gathered around her.
Lynch, a nurse for 40 years, has encountered countless patients suffering from mental health conditions, which was partly what drew her to the case. She joined a “Lindsay Clancy Trial Discussion” Facebook group to have more conversations about the case. But when she posted that she planned to attend the trial, she received a less-than-positive response.
“People were like, ‘You’re crazy! Don’t insert yourself by going!’ But I don’t see it that way,” she said. “I see it as bearing witness to the whole situation for the children and for her.”
One in eight women develop postpartum depression, which involves persistent sadness and fatigue, according to a 2024 study by BMC Public Health. Roughly the same percentage of mothers will develop postpartum anxiety, which includes overwhelming feelings of fear, difficulty concentrating or relaxing, and compulsive rituals.
Lisa Johnson, a nurse assistant from Thorne, only had time to attend a portion of the cross-examination of Rebecca Jollotta, the psychiatric nurse practitioner who treated Clancy at South Shore Health. Johnson said her daughter had experienced postpartum depression, which a pediatrician quickly diagnosed and treated with medication.
“When you’re in that depression and you get into that state, and then you start taking medications, that’s not really you. You can’t control your mind sometimes,” she said. “I see that in Lindsay’s story.”
One of the attendees, an airline employee who asked not to be named over concerns of retribution from her employer, hoped the case would be a catalyst for change.
Baroud, the clinical social worker who suffered from postpartum depression and anxiety, has a private practice based in Holliston focusing on perinatal care and hosts a free postpartum support group at Milford Hospital. She said the interest from people discussing the trial presented an opportunity to break down barriers for mental health care.
“I hope this can help us move away from the sensationalizing of this case and towards speaking about maternal mental health, reducing stigma, and getting mothers the resources they need,” she said.
As Baroud sat outside the courtroom during the afternoon lunch break, another woman sat beside her and started up a conversation about the case.
They were soon joined by another and then another, until the bench was full of women who, despite different backgrounds and occupations, connected over the difficult facts about a mother and nurse who, they felt, had been failed by the system.
Chloe Craft can be reached at chloe.craft@globe.com.