A dad who lost his wife to postpartum depression just nine days after the birth of their twins is calling for more awareness.

Ariana Sutton, 36, struggled with postpartum depression (PPD) after the birth of her first born, Melody, five.

Her husband Tyler, 37, noticed she became "obsessive" - checking tap water wasn't contaminated and not wanting to be left alone with her baby."

Following treatment, the couple decided to try for another baby fours year later, finding out they were expecting twins in November 2022.

They welcomed their twins, Everly and Rowan on May 22nd 2023 at 34 weeks who were both taken to the neonatal unit to be monitored.

Ariana was placed on medication hours after the birth, to help ease her PPD, but continued to struggle with stress and anxiety when the twins couldn't come home.

Nine days after the birth, Tyler came home and found Ariana had taken her own life while the twins were still in hospital.

Whilst still processing the loss of his wife, Tyler feels grateful that he is able to raise "three beautiful children"."

Tyler, a police officer from Easton, Massachusetts, US, said: "I don't like to speculate but since she had been through it before, I think she probably knew how to hide it from me. "

"The big effect that PPD has, the irrational sense of guilt and failure that stops people from reaching out for help, means the topic has taken a backseat."

"I wish the medical community could take the initiative during pregnancy and after to make PPD part of the discussion - just regular discussions."

Tyler and Ariana, who have been married for seven years, welcomed their first daughter Melody on October 12, 2018.

But Tyler soon noticed a changed in his wife's mood.

He said: "It changed quickly and gradually and it didn't help that we weren't familiar with PPD. "

"She would beg me not to say anything about it to others and in my ignorance I listened to her."

"It really increased her OCD too - she liked things clean and tidy but when she had Melody those habits were increased."

"A lot of things were rooted in a preventative extinct, like making sure the tap water was okay."

"This was going on for weeks and things got so bad that I couldn't recognise her anymore."

Ariana was taken to hospital in November 2018 and was diagnosed with PPD.

She spent two months in hospital before doctors were happy with the medication balance.

Tyler said: "A doctor diagnosed with her PPD and said it was one of the worst cases he'd seen."

She returned home in March 2019 on medication and saw a PPD-trained therapist.

Tyler said: "It was a concern that it might come back again. "

"A year after she had come home, she attempted to go off her medication without telling me and I started to see the red flags again. "

"She thought she could handle it, she started obsessing over her commute to work for example and that wasn't something I would see her do."

"She agreed to go back on it and knew that was the right thing to do."

"She was the ideal mother figure when she got better, my daughter's favourite person in the world. "

"But I think on some level, she felt like she had to be on medication to be a good mum."

Ariana mentioned she wanted to have more children, but Tyler wasn't sure.

He said: "She had made a big effort to try and forget about what had happened, but I did the opposite."

"When she brought it up saying she was ready, I simply said - 'we've got one, we're doing fine'. I could see that upset her."

"I didn't want to see her go through that again."

Ariana and her therapist came up with plan to put her back on medication after she gave birth - to put Tyler's worries aside

He said: "It was very convincing."

Ariana fell pregnant in September 2022 and she gave birth naturally at 34 weeks to Everly, weighing 5lbs 5oz and Rowan weighing 6lbs 5oz on May 22, 2023.

Tyler said: "Ariana felt like she had done something wrong at the fact they were born premature. "

"She thought she'd caught something, but I didn't and no one else thought that. "

"Even when you're talking to professionals she still had this irrational thought process."

"That's how much of a hold it had on her."

"The nurses told us she could start taking the medication again before we even left the hospital that day."



"But it wasn't working, so she doubled the dosage and it still didn't seem to help. But she was very adamant on getting it to work."

Tyler was on his way back from the town hall when he recieved a phone call on May 30, 2023 from Ariana's therapist to tell him she hadn't answered the phone, and raced home.

Their twins were still being cared for in hospital.

Tyler said: "I could feel that something was wrong in the house. "

"But because it was my house, it made me move slower."

"Our bedroom door was closed, which it never is. "

"I knew what I was going to find, I pushed on the door and I could feel a weight behind it. "

"I saw the note on the bed and eventually I saw her up against the door."

"I retreated against myself mentally and physically. I crawled down the stairs and called the police and continued to make phone calls until I broke down."

Tyler has been trying to face reality without his wife by his side, and thankfully his relationship with Melody has strengthened.

He said: "I'm still very sad that she's gone but even though she's not here anymore she still managed to give me these three beautiful children."

"I've just been needing a lot of help, it's expensive and I'm aware that in the long run I can't continue and support myself like this."

"Melody does well at articulating her feelings. "

"She told my mother that she didn't want to speak to me at first as she didn't want to make me sad, but very recently she started to talk about it more with me."

Tyler has said that raising his children has been helping him to get through but still wants more awareness around the issue.

He said: "It's definitely a very healthy distraction - being able to focus on all of my kids needs."

"Melody often runs in in the night and comes in to sleep with me so that's very helpful."

"This is something that happens throughout life - if people don't discuss it enough, we get complacent or forget that the problem exists."

"The number of people that have not come forward and try to go through it on their own must be massive."

"A lot of offices don't have a screening method, just a piece of paper that someone could easily lie on. "

"It wouldn't even cost much, just make it part of the discussion."