After (40 page)

Then, when I was pregnant with my fifth child and my husband was an Army prosecutor in Washington State, I truly grew intrigued with the issue. My husband was assigned a “Dumpster baby” case to try. In that case, a soldier secretly gave birth in the barracks, placed the newborn in a trash bag, and tossed the bag into a Dumpster behind the barracks. Fortunately, another soldier passing by heard a cry and discovered the baby alive. I was amazed that a soldier living within the stringent military environment could successfully conceal her pregnancy.

As my husband began to pull the case together, many interesting facts came to light. He discovered that several members of the soldier’s unit, including her superior officers, had suspected she was pregnant during the last few weeks of her pregnancy, but they were afraid to approach her. They didn’t want to offend her if they were mistaken, and they didn’t want to intrude on the female soldier’s private life.

Beginning then, I started researching the issue for myself and discovered that baby dumping has a long history. In England during the Middle Ages, neonaticide (the killing of a newborn by its parent during the first twenty-four hours of life)
³
was such a problem that the
Stuart Bastard Infanticide Act of 1624
was enacted. This law mandated that any woman having concealed her pregnancy and childbirth must provide proof that the child was stillborn or be guilty of murder, often with the penalty of death. In Colonial America, lawmakers similarly passed statutes whose aim was to punish “lewd and dissolute women” who produced “bastard children” but lacked enough “natural affection to keep them alive.”
⁴
By the time of the Reformation, children were being abandoned at such a high rate that governments in Northern Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal created foundling homes, often in cooperation with the Catholic Church, in order to help eradicate the problem.

Fast forwarding to contemporary times and the United States, in an attempt to alleviate the growing problem and give pregnant women a way to anonymously abandon their babies without fear of prosecution, Texas was the first state to enact what would later be termed “safe haven” legislation. That was in 1999, and since then, all forty-nine other states have passed similar legislation. Yet news outlets all over the United States are still reporting these “Dumpster baby” stories with alarming regularity. So why is this still happening?
After
attempts to answer that question.

1
Kaye, Neil S. (1991). Abstract of Kaye, N., Borenstein, N., Donnelly, M.: Families, Murder, and Insanity: A Psychiatric Review of Paternal Neonaticide. Clinical Digest Series.

2
Riley, Laura. (2005). Neonaticide: A Grounded Theory Study.
Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment,
Vol. 12
(4)
, 3.

3
Dr. Phillip Resnick, forensic psychiatrist, was the first to coin the term “neonaticide,” differentiating it from infanticide and filicide in his 1970 groundbreaking study on the issue (published in his classic article, “Murder of the newborn: A psychiatric review of neonaticide,” in the
American Journal of Psychiatry,
Volume 126, 1970.)

4
Schwartz, Lita Linzer, and Isser, Natalie K. (2000). Endangered Children: Neonaticide, Infanticide, and Filicide. New York: CRC Press, 36-37.

This may seem cliché, but it’s nevertheless true: writing is a lot like being pregnant. First there’s a conception. Then comes what feels like an endless period of development. And, finally, the birth. The hard work of labor is finally over, and everybody celebrates and gushes, “How beautiful!” and “You must be so proud!” You hold this new, exciting thing in your hands and somehow forget the pain it took to put it there.

Also, like a pregnant woman, a writer needs tons of support.
After
would never have entered the world had the following people not been there for me. I owe you all huge thank-yous! To Jo Anne Martin for letting me be a fly on the wall of your classroom in Remann Hall—if only every kid could have a teacher with as big a heart as yours. To Detention Manager Gerald Murphy and Remann Hall Administrator Daniel Erker for giving me access to the girls. To Dr. Phillip Resnick, forensic psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of neonaticide, for taking the time to provide me with feedback on an early draft of my book. To Brad Poole for allowing me to pick away at your brain about Washington State juvenile defense, and to Robert C. Gottlieb for your legal expertise with cases like Devon’s. To Todd Kelley for showing me around Tacoma General, and to Laird Pisto for providing answers to my legal questions relating to hospital procedure. To Dr. Rohit Katial for all the time you spent thoroughly answering my many questions, and to the rest of my medical experts—Dr. Nicki Bacon, Dr. Barbara Echo, and Nan Gilette—for your willingness to impart your knowledge. To Susan Pollock for helping me to understand how Child Protective Services handles abandoned baby cases, and to Yael Ben-Ari for providing a social worker’s perspective. To Virginia Pfalzer and Joan Dedman of Safe Place for Newborns of Washington for making me smart on “safe haven” legislation. To Mark Dougherty for checking that my “soccer mom” descriptions of “the beautiful game” made sense. To Alix Reid for believing in Devon’s story from the very beginning and focusing her voice. To my fab “Wild Folk” critique group for all the insightful constructive criticism and “inciteful” debate. To my agent, Amy Berkower, for firmly believing in this book and finding it the perfect home at Viking. To Regina Hayes for firmly believing in this book and
offering
it the perfect home at Viking. To my wonderful editor, Joy Peskin, for your incredible enthusiasm and polishing rag in the form of a pen—your seemingly innocuous suggestions prompted me to work harder and stay up later than I ever thought I would. Fingers crossed, we will do it again! To Sara Gustafson, Vivian Gembara, and my little sis, Bonnie Etnyre, for reading early drafts and suggesting great improvements. To Connie K. Walle for granting me permission to use the poems that were once sandblasted into concrete on the Promenade at Point Defiance but have since washed away—at least they are commemorated here! To my mom, Elizabeth Moudry, for being a total “mom,” nagging me nonstop to finish this book. To my long-suffering kids—Alix, Anastasia, Ari, Andrew, and Kat—for putting up with all those cold cereal and tuna melt/tomato soup dinners, that cluttered kitchen table, and often all-over-the-map ADD mom. This seven-year project was always present and demanding of my time and attention, almost like another sibling. To God through Whom all inspiration is given. And, of course, to Andy—words are inadequate to express my gratitude.