Mothers who kill Andrea Yates

It's been 15 years since Andrea Yates confessed to drowning her five children in a bathtub. She had a history of postpartum depression, which may have led her to commit such a crime. Today, though, views on postpartum are changing and more mothers are getting help.

George Parnham still talks to Andrea Yates at least once a week over the phone. He considers her a daughter. He tries to visit her at the mental hospital in Kerrville, where she is currently held, every couple months.

Parnham represented Yates 15 years ago during both trials, after she was arrested for drowning her five children in a bathtub in June 2001.

"When I call my kids on the weekends, I will call Andrea," George Parnham said.

Andrea Yates drowned her five children in her Clear Lake home, after her husband Rusty Yates left for work that morning. Houstonians were transfixed by the 2002 trial. Yates was first convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 2005, Yates' conviction was reversed due to false testimony given by a California psychiatrist.

 In 2006, she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Finally, in July 2006 she was found not guilty and sent first to a mental health hospital in North Texas, and then to Kerrville, where she's been since 2007. The case propelled conversations about women's mental health, specifically postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. Yates suffered from both postpartum depression and a more severe form of postpartum-- postpartum psychosis.

"I had no earthly idea before I got this case what was meant by postpartum,"  Parnham said.

But 15 years later, after the conversations around postpartum depression began, Houston mental health advocates still feel there needs to be more awareness.