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Ask any woman who’s tried to get pregnant but can’t; for many women, there are few desires stronger than having a baby. Not only do maternal instincts kick in at a certain age, but motherhood itself conveys a certain status. Throw in a history of miscarriages, an unstable personality, and a precarious love relationship that “needs” a baby to glue it together, and the resulting desperation can be deadly.
In fact, according to the American Journal of Nursing, between 1983 and 2006, 22 women killed another woman to steal her baby. Nine of them cut open the mother to remove the fetus from the womb.
The Fake Pregnancy
It starts with a fake pregnancy. All of the woman who killed expecting mothers spent months faking their pregnancies, convincing friends and families they were about to give birth.
Katherine Smith, who was stabbed to death while attempting to kill a pregnant woman, wore padding under her maternal underwear and carried around an ultrasound of someone else’s unborn twins. She had been telling her neighbors for weeks that she was pregnant and had created a full nursery in her apartment. Peggy Jo Connor, charged with attempted murder and kidnapping of a pregnant neighbor, told her live-in boyfriend that she was expecting a child and he spent a summer excitedly creating a nursery attachment onto their mobile home. A few women visited hospitals and some had baby showers.
The Mindset Behind the Murder
But why would anyone fake a pregnancy for months on end? Surely there is the awareness that, at nine months, friends and family will want to see the fruits of her labor. Given the clear evidence of premeditation involved, it appears that many of these women not only knew they would have to produce a child, they took active steps to find one.
For instance, most of the women who committed homicide by caesarian section had deliberately cultivated a relationship with the intended — and pregnant — victim. The victims were most often friends, neighbors or casual acquaintances. Other women went looking at social service agencies or outside hospital clinics, offering rides, medicine or other gifts to the victim mother before killing them. At least a few of the woman had researched how to perform Caesarean sections and had gathered medical supplies to prepare for the procedure.
“What they have in common is a desperate need for a baby,” he said. “It may be someone who is so self-centered they don’t care
The Love Triangle
While men are almost never involved in this type of murder, they almost always play a pivotal side role (one that they are completely unaware of); as a motivator. In fact, in most of these cases, the primary motivation underlying the abduction of the newborn was to cement a relationship with a male partner by providing them with a child. Seven of the nine women had convinced their lovers, boyfriends, or spouses that they were pregnant.
The Pathological Path From In Vitro to Abduction
Many infertile women go to extreme lengths to have a baby. We give ourselves daily shots, undergo surgery, or travel across the world to bring home a cherished child. So what separates the desperate women who’s willing to spends years on infertility treatments from the one who is willing to murder for one?
We don’t know for sure, but my guess is that these women have something missing that the rest of us have; moral brakes. Psychological assessment of these women indicate that they tend to be self-centered, narcissistic, and anti-social. This lack of empathy enables them to sacrifice a human life to get what they want. It’s not that they don’t know what they’re doing is wrong; at that moment, they just don’t care.
The Bottom Line
The extent to which a woman will go to get a baby depends both on how desperate — and how disturbed — she is.
