Why a mom kills her baby?

This is neither the first or last time that I read about a mother killed her baby. But the story of the Calgary mom who tossed 3 babies in the garbage pushed me to critically think about this phenomenon. Any time I read such a weird  news, I used to reflect on it with using some cliché words  such as it’s horrible, disgusting, oh no, impossible, and so on…..no doubt that the killing of an innocent baby under any condition elicits our sorrow, anger and horror. However, this time, I decided to step back and instead of having the same usual familiar reaction, ask myself why? Why a mother who is the symbol of love, devotion and support can do such a thing? What are hidden causes of this atypical behaviour? Well, some simple answers to such questions would immediately direct us to psychological issues, mental illness, psychosis, etc. This time, however, my reaction was not as it used to be, and I felt the need to do a research on this phenomenon.

Today, I went to the Tylor library and found the book “Infanticide” edited by Margaret Spinelli (2003). I thought it might help me to look at this kind of murder differently! This book is about psycho-social and legal perspectives on mothers who kill their babies. 
In the introduction, Spinelli asks her readers ‘to share in a difficult task: to reach beyond rage, to stretch the limits of compassion and enter the minds of mothers who kill their babies’ (p.xvi).  To me, one reason that she has such a request from us, as her readers is to put aside our biases and look at this phenomenon with a different lens. Spinelli states that whatever the causes of maternal infanticide is, lack of research-based information on the temporal relationship between childbirth and infanticide shows that we miss signs of understanding the diagnosis and phenomenology[1] that underlies infanticide.  

The first chapter of this book written by Michelle Oberman is a brief history of infanticide originated in ancient cultures, where it was widely practiced in those societies. The main reasons used to justify this action varies from population control to eugenics (the theory that humans can influence our own evolution, through selective breeding, or genetic enhancement)[2], to illegitimacy. Oberman also discusses that female infanticide was a common practice in early and pre-Islamic culture in 17^th century Arabia (p.5). [3] Infanticide, in medieval era is associated with poverty, nonmarital sex, stigmatization to unmarried mothers and illegitimacy.

In reviewing the literature, there is almost nothing about the relationship between mental illness and infanticide up until 19^th century- when a causal relationship between pregnancy, childbirth and subsequent maternal mental illness is quoted from two psychiatrists. Also, the story of Sheryl Massip, a California woman who had killed her 6-week old son is analyzed as a typical case of postpartum psychosis in 1987. What Sheryl had done, reveals a dramatic new perspective on this kind of crime- that of illness. In her trial, Sheryl tells the investigators that ‘a black object with orange hair and white gloves who wasn't really a person had kidnapped her baby’ (p.9).

The hallmark of the first chapter of this book is revealing various underlying facts that none of the excuses of generations past such as poverty, stigma, disability or mental illness can fully explain infanticide in contemporary era!  Oberman argues that there are a different types of contemporary infanticide and maternal characteristics as responsive to the societal construction of and constraints on mothering: A summary of contemporary causes contributed to infanticide in the society are as follows:

“young maternal age[4],  immaturity, lack of education, pregnancy concealed or denied, emotionally isolated from partner, abandonment by a partner, family dynamics- one example is: teen-aged moms sexually abused by their fathers,  limited economic independence, violent and/or abusive male partner, stigma, rejection ( cultural, religious responses to illegal/non-marital babies), parental chaos and domestic violence, limited social support, overwhelmed by economic and cultural constraints, extreme poverty, socially isolated, alone with baby, guilt over inability/disability to cope, incapable of parenting without assistance, chronic child abuse, elevated using drugs and alcohol…”  

 The key point changed my perspective toward mothers kill their babies was the way society is best responsible to this social crisis: Oberman states that ‘what we gain by punishing them (mothers as killers) may be no more than an opportunity to vent our rage at a life so needlessly lost’.  Although this book is not to say those who commit infanticide are blameless, however, it is emphasized that the task in a civilized and compassionate society is to determine how to deal justly with those who kill their children and more importantly, how to mobilize all of our resources to prevent these needless deaths in the future. 

Based on what I learned from this book, infanticide is not caused by a single factor- i.e. mental illness, rather  it is as a result of a series of complex social determinants which cannot easily be analyzed. Our mental/spiritual health like physical health is influenced by so many factors such as our early life, the family and environment we grow up in, and the social, cultural and religious factors shape our characters. These factors are called the social determinants. Research shows that the social determinants can be more important than health care or lifestyle choices such as physical activity and nutrition. In Canada, the social determinants of health include: aboriginal status, disability, early life, education, employment and working conditions, unemployment and job security, food insecurity, health services, gender and gender identity, housing, income and income distribution, race, sexual orientation, social exclusion and social safety net. To sum up with what Spinelli argues, and how mental health is constituted by social determinants, what would your answer be to the question of why a mom kills her baby?    

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[1] Lived experience aims to reveal a priori

[2] http://freewill.typepad.com/genetics/2008/04/what-is-eugenic.html

[3]  To my opinion, the writer of this book is not familiar with the contemporary rules in Islamic countries!   

[4]  According to Brockington 1996; Kaye et al. 1990, 90% of the killings are committed by women under 25 years old.