CYNTHIA WACHENHEIM, the Manhattan lawyer who jumped to her death with her infant son strapped to her body this week, had a brilliant career. But motherhood appears to have caused her to unravel. While her case is extreme, there is something very typical about it.

In my experience, women who have a first child late in life after a long career are often high-strung mothers. Wachenheim became a mother for the first time at 43. Compared to law school and a professional life, caring for an infant is primal and chaotic. It is not surprising that motherhood would be deeply stressful for a lawyer accustomed to a world of efficiency and rationality and who will likely have few children, a fact that renders every event in her one child’s life extremely momentous.

Wachenheim, who attempted to kill her child, is symbolic of a nation that is so suicidal it fails to prepare women for the most important job of all.

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