Posted on 08/13/2007 4:35:05 AM PDT by shrinkermd
...Few crimes generate greater public reaction than neonaticide: when a mother kills her baby, or leaves it to die, on the day she gives birth. We are repelled, yet mesmerized, as details emerge. How could a woman deny being pregnant for so many months? How could no one notice? How could a mother murder her newborn?
As a forensic psychologist, I have evaluated 32 mothers who were charged with killing one or more of their children. Fourteen-year-old "Cathy" was one. She had been repeatedly molested by her stepfather, gave birth alone in her bedroom, and then threw her newborn against the wall. "Edna," a college freshman, was so indecisive about ending her pregnancy that she suffocated her minutes-old baby in an act of delayed abortion.
Cathy and Edna denied and hid their pregnancies, common in neonaticide cases, particularly among teens pregnant for the first time. That was also true in the recent Anaheim case in which a 17-year-old visiting from Indiana allegedly gave birth in a Denny's restroom; police said that neither her parents nor her boyfriend knew she was pregnant. (That baby was found alive in a trash can and hospitalized; the mother has been charged with felony child abuse and neglect.)
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
my thoughts exactly.
My mom told the story of holding her firstborn and being alarmed by how fierce she felt...no one, ever, was going to hurt her baby. I didn’t have that type of reaction, but I did start crying and wanted to protect her from everything horrible in the world. I know that the first words I said, without thinking, to my second born were “It’s okay, mama’s got you.”
There is something incredibly sick about a culture that can force these basic instincts out. There is no reason why we can’t respect the differences between men and women and celebrate them. I mean, isn’t that what diversity is all about?
Brilliant reminder oh Mrs. T-C. I have long lost the ability to think even slightly academically, I blame it all on my 24 week old "choice" who is convinced that my ribs are his special comfort zone.
Actually, what started me on this meander was the memory that as a little girl, I had no contact with babies whatsoever. I was the younger of only two, and youngest of all the cousins; we had no baby-having neighbors, either.
I grew up never even baby-sitting, having zero contact, and then hit adolescence at the surge of modern (Friedan-era) feminism which spiritedly trashed amd repudiated every feminine virtue.
Consequently, I had never even touched a newborn until I touched my own. And I had little idea of how to care for him, except you swabbed one end and fed the other. My own mother was 1500 miles away, and much debilitated and disabled, and sisters and female kindred I had none.
Of course, being bookish, I read my way into the motherly arts; and thanks to the conservative Catholic set I had fallen into (prolifers) I read the right stuff. CCL and the La Leche League tracts, and the attachment insights of Dr. Sears.
I felt acutely my lack of aptness for what should be normal feminine nurturant behavior. And that was partly due to the lack of a competence-building and baby-loving motherculture.
Thank you. I have entire years in which I’m mentally drifty, but right now I’m not pregnant, barely nursing, and usually able to sleep at night. It’s amazing to be conscious :-). Hang in there!
Your post above describes how I felt about my newborn babies, too. When I had a job, I used to go over to the daycare center (Episcopal church, very nice) during my lunch break just to look at my son. Even though he was happy (spoiled rotten by the abuelitas, actually), I hated leaving him, and I gave my notice the day my husband finally graduated from college.
I had very similar experiences, except that I babysat. When Anoreth was born, I was largely clueless. (I also had a job, so she was cared for by people who knew what they were doing - probably for the best, under the circumstances!)
Dr. Sears was a big help to me, when I finally found myself at home full time with children.
Old fogeys ae the salt of the earth.
When God is looking down at us here on earth, I have no doubt that he looks at us old fogeys and smiles, “at least some of you get it.”
At least, that’s my prayer.
Maybe they never did in the first place. My mother didn't buy my sanitary products for me, I bought them with my allowance.
You spent your OWN money, instead of throwing them into the family grocery cart? Actually, if I’d been shopping alone with my Dad, I would have been too embarrassed, at least in my early teens.
My dad did all the grocery shopping when I ws in my early teens. By the time I was doing most of the shopping I had long learned to buy that kind of stuff when it was on sale, which did not always coincide with the family shopping cart.........which I was stocking, but dad was transporting (and paying for).
"Fourth Trimester".
I read a news story about a woman in my town who bought her 4 and 18 month old toys on Saturday. She also bought a gas can and while the childrens were playing with their new toys, she set them on fire and killed herself. No one thought this woman would do such a thing :( (It was on the nbc5.com website)
Our society has gone so far downhill since we allowed mothers to vacuum out their unborn children :(
Liberals engage in this contradictory thinking all the time.
I have relatives by marriage who wanted a child, but were infertile. This couple are very, very politically correct lefties (journalist, college professor types).
While they were on a waiting list to adopt, there was a much publicized incident of a baby thrown in a dumpster. They were highly indignant -- "How could anyone do such a thing!" and "People like that should be shot!"
Yet both of these people are ardent pro-aborts. Oh, and anti-death penalty too.
Another old fogey chiming in here. You are SO right.
You're not over-stating. You are so right!
Both my boys and my girl learned to love and protect small things --babies, kittens, puppies-- as they were brought up at home. (Sure, siblings fight and children roughhouse with pets, but if they have loving parents they're corrected when they get too rambunctious.)
On the other hand, children brought up in day care centers learn only the law of the jungle.
Is it surprising we have so many brutal crimes carried out by juveniles, when such a large percentage of them have grown up in day care? No, it is not.
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