A woman gave birth to a baby on the subway

Whoa!

Wow, that's amazing!

and weird.

Well, we New Englanders are a tough bunch.

The woman has had psychiatric problems before and now has had her three children talen from her until such time as she can be evaluated to have regained the ability to care for them. She has been a nurse and her family has stated she is bright and they support her.

Wow. That's pretty sad. Is there a husband involved anywhere in this?

Figures that they'ed take her kids away. Nothing like devistating a family simply because she did something out of the norm!

Er - as a wild guess, Montana, I would guess the poor woman is currently psychotic - possibly with a depression nasty enough to cause psychosis for a time - what used to be called a puerperal psychosis.

If so, the woman (having already endangered the child's life - and her own - by the manner of the birth) could quite possibly harm her baby - believe me, if you suspect such a condition you act FAST - and do NOT leave the sufferer alone with the babe - (I have had a few bewildered husbands call these in from work - yikes!))

For the sake of everyone involved, you want to make damn good and sure the woman is stable before leaving her unsupervised with the children - and, if previous children have been removed, there would be no damn refuge for any involved professionals at an inquest if the wrong decision was made, and a baby was killed.

Hopefully, if I am correct, she is receiving treatment at an inpatient facility, WITH her baby - but supervised, and will get lots of support.

You cannot take risks with babies - they die so easily - not that risks are not taken every day, when there is no proof of clear danger, and then you have sleepless nights....

Oh, and babies die.

Deb
She already raised 2 other children who are older, so to assume she's unfit is not fair at all. She obviously didn't hurt her baby.

Montana, I had the same reaction when I first saw this -- "So she politely refused help, big whoop" -- and continued thinking "well maybe she had a good reason", up until this:



That's just not right.

(That's from littlek's second link.)

Sozobe
I just read the first link when I posted and I really should have read the second one as well because after reading that my jaw hit the floor.

Please everyone, ignore my last posts!

Not saying she is necessarily unfit, Montana - saying circumstances point to her being unwell at present.

None of us knows, but, after 23 years experience in the family and kid therapy field, my good hunch is that she is not well.

There is certainy a prima facie case for that. If I were making the call, I would rather annoy her, and have the kids upset for a day or so (horrid as that is - sounds as though they could stay with family), find out that she is well, but unorthodox, and have the media and lawyers and whatever roast me and eat me for breakfast, than not have a look at the situation and find out the hard way that she was very ill.

There are no perfect decisions in this sort of area - you just try to make the least worst ones.

If she IS unwell - believe me, when she is better, she is likely to be extremely happy you stepped in.

er, posted that before I saw Sozobe's post.

Deb
After reading the second link I now see what all the panic is about and I wish I had read it before I stuck my foot in my mouth.

Its all well and good that we want to make sure these children are in good hands as well as her being stable and healthy however....I have noted in the articles I have read that she had gone to the hospital the day before with contractions but, they released her due to insufficient dialation. She was on her way to the hospital when her water broke and she gave birth. She left the T, and hurridly left the station while getting a newspaper to wrap the baby in on her way to the hospital.
Okay, birth aint pretty, labor aint fun and she might just have been very out of sorts giving birth during rush hour on the T....have you tried the T in that area at that time of day..that alone is enough to
make a person nuts.
Now, she could have a great deal of other problems but, having given birth at some point previously and being a nurse....I just tend to doubt the twist the media puts on this one. They have focused more on the shock factor than the priorities here, which in turn have made the appropriate agencies have to take all drastic measures possibly when this could just be one of those freak things.
I dont think it is mind you but, jeesh...give the gal a bit of a break, will ya?
I tend to get very irritated at what the media leaves out in stories like this and how they focus on heresay and blow things out of proportion to make a serious impact on peoples lives.
Just my opinion but, it would be nice if all ended up well and together in the end and it was just quite a traumatic event.

I hear what you're saying about the media Quinn, but it was said that she was standing and the baby hit the floor. I don't know if there's any truth to that, but if there is, then something is wrong somewhere.

If the story about the baby hitting the floor is not true then of course I stand by my first responses.