(NewsNation) — The death of three Boston-area children at the hands of their mother is putting the spotlight on postpartum psychosis, a disease that advocates say is part of a maternal mental health crisis.

Lindsay Clancy has been charged with strangling her three kids to death, and prosecutors alleged in court Tuesday that she planned it all out. They say she intentionally sent her husband away the day she killed her two older children, Cora, 5, and Dawson, 3, and severely injured her 7-month-old, Callan, who died a few days later at a hospital.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington, who has indicated that he plans an insanity defense, painted a picture of a woman struggling with mental illness, who had been prescribed several medications in an effort to control it. Reddington says his client was prescribed more than a dozen medications for postpartum psychosis.

Postpartum psychosis is an extreme mood disorder that occurs in one or two out of every 1,000 deliveries, according to Postpartum Support International. Symptoms include delusions, hallucinations and paranoia, and it can lead to thoughts of suicide or homicide.

Paige Bellenbaum and Catherine Birndorf with The Motherhood Center of New York are advocates who believe more awareness is needed about postpartum psychosis and other mental health disorders women face during and after pregnancy.

“We are in the midst of a maternal mental health crisis right now in this country,” Bellenbaum said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “CUOMO.” “We have women that are experiencing perinatal mood and anxiety disorders; that includes depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD and postpartum psychosis, at exponentially high rates.”

The Motherhood Center of New York is an organization that provides “supportive services for new and expecting moms/birthing people, including a range of treatment options for those suffering from perinatal mood and anxiety disorders,” according to the center’s website.

Birndorf, the center’s CEO, lamented the idea that women experiencing postpartum psychosis can often be prosecuted.

“This is not criminal. This is illness. This is a disease, and we have to accept it as such,” Birndorf said. “And because we don’t, we criminalize these women, who are not in their quote right mind. … No mother in her right mind would kill her kids.”

During Clancy’s arraignment, the prosecution painted a picture of a woman who had concocted an errand that would keep her husband, Patrick, out of the house long enough for her to kill her three children. Patrick returned home Jan. 24 to find his wife had jumped out of a second-story window in an attempt to kill herself.

“The defendant stated that after (Patrick) left the house that night, she killed the kids because she heard a voice, and had, quote unquote, a moment of psychosis,” Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said during the arraignment via Zoom.

Lindsay Clancy is still hospitalized. Prosecutors sought to have have her jailed without bail, but a judge ruled Clancy will remain at the hospital until she is well enough to be moved to a rehabilitation facility as she awaits trial.

“This is a woman that was experiencing hallucinations and delusions,” Bellenbaum said. “She was hearing an auditory command that was instructing her to kill her children and kill herself, and that this was her only chance. That is a clear indication of a psychotic episode.”

Birndorf says the medication was another clear indication that Clancy was experiencing psychosis.

“At the time of the incident, she was taking three medications, which is typical for someone suffering from postpartum psychosis. I’m not alarmed,” Birndorf said. “The question is, were they the right drugs, was she on the right dose, were they subtherapeutic, was she actually taking them? We don’t know. That may have led to the problem.”