Shocked police, a tragic outcome. Monday, July 7 in the morning, in a peaceful pavilion in Valenton (Val-de-Marne) a police team exposed the lifeless body of a newborn baby, hidden in the drum of a washing machine. A drama of extreme violence, difficult to understand.
A probable denial of pregnancy that turns into drama
It all starts Sunday evening when a 39 -year -old woman, of Moldovan nationality, is admitted to the emergency room. She suffers from significant bleeding. Asked, she denies having given birth. But doctors discover a placenta and traces of umbilical cord, incompatible with its declarations. Worried, they alert the police headquarters.
A first patrol goes to the family home. The inspection of the premises reveals nothing suspect, nor any trace of a recent childbirth on the spot. However, in the night, the woman ends up admitting having given birth. She remains unclear, refuses to say where the baby is. The police are going back on the spot and searches the house of Font en fierce again. At dawn, one of them opens the washing machine. The lifeless body of the infant is found there, with no apparent trace of violence.
A hospitalized mother automatically
In the absence of clear elements provided by the mother, the infant autopsy should bring clarification on the exact circumstances of her death. For a relative of the investigation, “This case strongly evokes a case of pregnancy denial“.
The woman could not be placed in police custody. Deemed medically unfit, she was hospitalized automatically. The Créteil prosecution has opened a judicial investigation for voluntary homicide on a minor under the age of fifteen. The investigation was entrusted to the Val-de-Marne territorial security.
An overwhelming psychic explanation
Faced with such a brutal, almost unimaginable gesture, of a mother (who also has other children), the question of why remains suspended. For the clinical psychologist Amélie Boukhobza, questioned on a similar case, this case very clearly evokes a denial of pregnancy of extreme intensity.
“It is obvious that this mother, at that time, did not act under the conscience of a premeditated act”she explains. “She sank into what is called in psychotic denial in the psychotic jargon – a devastating defense mechanism where the reality of maternity, with its violence and its requirements, becomes unbearable. It is the brutal rejection, the impossibility of integrating what is happening. A denial so strong that it crushes any form of empathy, of reason.”
According to the psychologist, in this type of crisis, women can literally do not perceive the baby as a real being.
“This baby was perhaps only an unbearable idea for her”, she continues. “In a psychotic crisis, a pregnancy is often experienced as something ‘extra-terrestrial’, an intruder who takes possession of her body”.
As for the gesture itself-place the newborn in a washing machine-it would not simply be symbolic, but deeply revealing of the interior chaos that the mother crosses. Placing this child in the washing machine also has something very significant in psychotic pathology. As if this mother had wanted to unconsciously erase all traces of this event.
Judge, but also treat
This upset news highlights the complexity of extreme psychic states. If a judicial investigation is essential to shed light on this drama, it cannot be enough.
“The act, which is almost monstrous, obviously reflects the discomfort of this woman”concludes Amélie Boukhobza. “”It must be helped today, not only judged. “
In the meantime, it is a whole family, a district, and beyond, an entire society which remains amazed by the psychological distress which has been able to lead to such a tragedy.