Suicide in pregnancy: the Hedda Gabler syndrome

A review of forty-seven suicides in women of child-bearing age revealed that two women were pregnant, two were within the first year post-partum and two falsely believed themselves pregnant. The search revealed two additional pregnancy-associated suicides which had not been reported as suicide. Previous studies asserting that pregnancy protects against suicide would seem to be challenged by these data. Pregnancy-related suicides are similar to each other and to the literary suicide of Hedda Gabler and fit into a continuum of pregnancy-related disorders.