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« Rall Rails. | Main | Waking up late and other tales of woe »

What do you make of this?

August 1, 2003

I'm not getting at all that this woman was in any way acting in a manner that would indicate that she is a danger to her child. Sure, her behavior was a little strange, but she GAVE BIRTH ON A FREAKING TRAIN! Wouldn't you be a little out of sorts if you did that?

This article tries to make it sound as if there is something clearly very off about this woman, and in fact her baby was taken from her due to her "bizarre behavior." It sounds reasonable to me that she would refuse help from the train passengers, considering she's a nurse...and it sounds like she handled things quite well. I suppose the fact that she didn't need a doctor to help her deliver a baby is grounds for investigation.

And it's weirdly contradictory. Like there's this description:

About 90 seconds later, Chin said, ''I saw a head, then full baby fall out from her skirt, hit the floor sideways and slide the length of the doorway, stopping when he bumped up against the next row of seats. Still she stared out the window. Either she didn't know it happened or didn't want to acknowledge it.''

followed by this:

Judge bent down, picked up the baby and wrapped it in her scarf, Chin said.

If the baby had slid all over the place (which I don't particularly think is a sign that the mother is abusive or "off" - there is, after all, well-documented evidence that women giving birth enter a trance-like state) how could the mother simply "bend down" to pick the baby up.

The article ends:

DSS, which has no record of any prior contact with the family, placed Judge's two other children in temporary custody yesterday. Denise Monteiro, a DSS spokeswoman, said the baby will not be released to Judge, who said she works for Boston Public Schools in food and nutritional services, unless the agency is convinced she can care for the child. The hospital is conducting a psychiatric evaluation of Judge, Monteiro said.

''We're trying to find out what prompted this behavior,'' she said. ''It makes us concerned about her and it makes us concerned about her baby.''

And I'm freaked out by this. Why have they taken this woman's children from her? And why are we not hearing her side of the story in this article? This was very disconcerting for me, and I can't quite put a finger on it.

Thanks to Jessica for the link.

Posted at August 1, 2003 12:02 AM

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Comments

I think one reason we're not hearing her side is (according, of course, to this reporter) that she hasn't spoken to pretty much anyone in a long while.

Posted by: Jessica at August 1, 2003 12:56 AM

Yeah. I still don't know what to make of it. The article seemed really weird. Granted, the situation did seem strange, but I dunno.

It is apparent, based on what was written in the article, that the woman is possibly depressed. But is depression grounds for losing your children? She did appear to care for the baby after the birth. I get the impression that the article was trying to imply that maybe she was going to throw the baby in a garbage can or something, but she clearly did not. And someone who did not care at all would not object to having her child taken and examined by the officers.

I dunno. I could just be being overly mama bear about this, but something sounds really fucking fishy. If the woman's intention was to harm the baby, she could have just stayed home and had it, and there would have been fewer witnesses.

Posted by: drublood at August 1, 2003 9:31 AM

I had to laugh out loud about her picking up the after birth, in mid-stride, tossing it in her shoulder bag, and continuing to walk away! It sounds to me like she was trying hard to take care of herself in a bad situation, and maybe up until the minute the baby delivered, she was trying to convince herself this just wasn't happening, or that she had time to get to the hospital. I can see getting a psych eval while she's in the hospital, and keeping her and baby there til they know everything is ok. But placing this baby, and her other children, in state care is way overboard, in my opinion.

Posted by: daintily dirty at August 1, 2003 5:43 PM