Trigger Warning: This article discusses sensitive topics such as depression and suicide.
A man has issued a desperate plea after his wife ended her life nine days after giving birth to twins.
Tyler Sutton, a local police officer from Boston, was "cautiously optimistic" when his wife, Ariana, told him that she was pregnant just less than five years after giving birth to their first daughter, Melody.
Ariana suffered from postpartum depression in 2018 and was hospitalized because of the severity of the symptoms so Tyler was excited but naturally apprehensive about the news.
"I was very nervous," he told TODAY in an interview. "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."
The pair went to great lengths to prepare for the birth of their twins, making sure that Ariana was seeing a psychologist every single week leading up to it as well as making sure her obstetrician was aware of her previous battle with the disease.
"We were both so excited to be having twins. I can’t even begin to describe how happy she was," Tyler said. "There were no signs that anything was wrong. You’d never have a clue. She was always joking about her swollen ankles and how she couldn’t wait to drink a big cup of coffee."
However, just nine days after Everly and Rowan were born on May 22, Ariana took her own life.
"I never dreamed this could happen. It came on so rapidly, and so suddenly," he said. "She started talking about how she wanted them back in her belly. I was like, 'Honey, they’re going to be fine. They came early, but they’re healthy and they’ve got a great team of people watching them around the clock.'
"But I couldn’t get through to her. No one could get through to her," he added.
Tyler then recalled a conversation that he had with his wife in which she described the reality of suffering from postpartum depression, describing it as a "little person had taken up residence" in her head.
"That little person would drown out all the positive things that people tell her. And it would be screaming at her, 'You’re a bad mom! You’re not doing your job! This is your fault! Everything’s your fault!'" Tyler says. "It was as if she couldn’t hear anything else over that voice."
The morning that Ariana took her life, she had pumped breast milk for the twins - a task she dreaded doing.
"The hardest time for her was the morning - that’s when she’d be stewing in her thoughts. As the day would go on, she’d get better. But then come nighttime, she’d be dreading going back to sleep because she didn’t want to have to go through it again the next morning," he recalled.
She also left Tyler a note.
"In her letter, it was clear that she was depressed. She said she felt like a burden. She was anything but a burden," he told the outlet. "She just needed some help. I wish she had just waited for me to get home so I could have helped her."
The heartbroken father opened up about recognizing the signs of postpartum depression, revealing that Ariana had become "obsessive", which manifested in things like the water supply in the house.
"She was concerned there were bad things in our tap water, and would call the water department in town to discuss it with them - and even after she was assured that everything was fine, she couldn’t drop it," Tyler says.
He also urged that pregnant women need to be warned about the signs of the disease.
"When newly pregnant women walk into their first appointment and they’re talking to their OB, they should be learning about postpartum depression - the risks and the signs," he said. "And they should continue having these conversations throughout the pregnancy."
A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family in the wake of the tragedy and has managed to raise over $380,000 so far and the proceeds are set to be used to "provide the support [the] family desperately needs."
Our thoughts and prayers are with Ariana's loved ones, especially Tyler and his three little girls.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
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