Healey proposes nurse visits for new families after Clancy trial

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is proposing expanded postpartum support after the high-profile Lindsay Clancy murder trial renewed attention to postpartum mental health. Her plan would allocate $2 million for voluntary nurse home visits for families with newborns, offering guidance on infant care while screening mothers for depression and other mental health concerns. Healey also wants to provide $250,000 to the state’s Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms and update perinatal mental-health screening regulations. State officials say mental illness, including substance-use disorders, accounted for 38% of pregnancy-related deaths from 2019 to 2024, and most of those deaths were preventable. Clancy’s trial ended in a mistrial after jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether postpartum psychosis affected her responsibility for the 2023 deaths of her three children.