In Marolles-en-Brie (Val-de-Marne), a woman was taken into police custody after her companion discovered the bodies of two newborn babies in a freezer in her house. But what could be the reasons for this act? Why do mothers use this means to conceal babies? Fanny Jacq, psychiatrist specialist in perinatality and mental health director at Qare, enlightens us.
- On March 21, the bodies of the two infants were autopsied. The babies would have died “by asphyxiation” following a “pressure”.
- The newborns were thus viable at birth, according to the experts who could not indicate their age and the date of their death.
On March 20, a police officer in his thirties found two babies in the freezer of the home where he lives with his partner, a pavilion located in Marolles-en-Brie in Val-de-Marne. Stunned after this morning discovery, he decides to call for help. The police officer was taken care of by the firefighters and assured the investigators that he was not aware of his wife’s pregnancy, nor of the delivery.
His companion, aged 33, has been in police custody since Sunday, said the Créteil prosecutor’s office, contacted by AFP. She would have explained to have made a denial of pregnancy and gave birth to the two babies after an extramarital affair. Thus, his companion, the policeman, would not be the father of his children, probably twins. According to the information collected by the investigation which was entrusted to the Territorial Brigade for the Protection of the Family, the accused already has a child born from a previous union.
The denial of pregnancy in question
According to Fanny Jacq, perinatal psychiatrist and mental health director at Qare, the abandonment of a baby most often occurs in the context of total denial of pregnancy, namely when the woman gives birth to a child. without even knowing that she was pregnant. “In this case, she doesn’t have time to organize herself and think about her decision, because the baby is already there”, explains the specialist.
When it is a partial denial of pregnancy and the woman learns that she is expecting a baby after the first trimester, “she has a few months ahead of her to decide whether to keep the child or not”, continues Fanny Jacq. During this period, the future mother may be interested in the various possible solutions, for example giving birth under X, having her baby adopted or even turning to voluntary termination of pregnancy.
Close pregnancies can also lead some mothers to abandon their child. “After having a baby, some women suffer from severe postpartum depression. another child. With exhaustion and hormonal drop, mothers may decide to abandon their newborn”explains the psychiatrist.
Why do they choose to put their baby in a freezer?
At the end of pregnancy, mothers-to-be may have “delusions” and realize that they don’t want to have a baby. They are not able to make room for him in their minds and in their homes, but they want to maintain a link with their child after birth. “These women thus decide to place their child in a freezer to keep it close to them, so that they do not suffer and so that they die in ‘good conditions’. For them, this act is less violent than bury it. By putting them in this appliance, they are less aware of killing their baby”, develops Fanny Jacq.
The perinatal specialist adds that mothers who put their living baby in a trash can, in front of a hospital or on the landing of a house, do not really intend to take their life. These women give them a chance to get out of it, while showing that they do not want or cannot keep it, because it is possible to find the infant. On the other hand, people who kill their child and then place them in a garbage bag, “like waste”, are often sociopaths or psychopaths, because they give their babies no chance of staying alive.
