The Cultural and Economic Context of Maternal Infanticide : A Crying Baby and the Inability to Escape

Almost every story of maternal infanticide starts with 'the baby wouldn't stop crying'. But the story is more than' just bad or mentally ill mothers who lethally assault their baby. The story is about how hard it is to be a good mother in a society where women are expected to raise their children in their spare time and with their spare change. This expectation is grounded in a modern mothering ideology of unclear, overwhelming gender socialized expectations of what good mothers are supposed to be and do and assumes mothers have access to the economic and support resources necessary for this monumental job. The struggle of being a 'good mother' is common to all mothers and requires much more time and resources than most mothers have available to them. In today's society, almost all mothers must have a paying job just to make ends meet. Their job takes up most of their day and leaves little time for the demands of parenting. Gender segregated jobs and economic inequality of women leave mothers with pay checks that are insufficient for homecare, childcare, and healthcare and leaves them eking out basic goods such as food, diapers, and medicine. And they are powerless to change their situation. For some mothers, like the ones discussed in this book, the struggle overwhelms them and they commit a terrible, heavily-regretted act that costs them their child's life, their family, their freedom, and their piece of mind for the rest of their lives. This book examines the social, economic and cultural conditions and stressors under which mothers commit infanticide, and shows how these conditions affect the ability to meet societal and self-perceived expectations of 'good' mothering. As mothers perceive that they are failing to meet these expectations, the likelihood of violence toward the infant increases. This failure is the result of cultural and economic inequalities that are situated in the context of increasingly anomic, unrealistic expectations of mothering and decreasing social support and economic resources necessary for fulfilling the role identity of mother. Front Cover 1 The Cultural and Economic Context of Maternal Infanticide: A Crying Baby and The Inability to Escape 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 12 Acknowledgments 14 Chapter 1 An Introduction and Overview of Infanticide 16 1.1. Maternal Love: Instinctual or Cultural? 17 1.2. Trends: How Often Does Maternal Love Go Wrong? 20 1.3. Is It Mental Illness? 24 1.4. Central Theme and Organization of This Book 28 Chapter 2 Predispositional Factors in Maternal Infanticide 30 2.1. Economic Inequality and Insufficient Resources 31 2.2. Family Violence and Intimate Partner Abuse 38 2.3. Unwanted Pregnancy and the Reality of Parenting 43 2.4. Social Isolation and Family Support 47 Chapter 3 Cultural Inequality and the Mothering Ideology 52 3.1. Cultural Inequality and the Devaluing of Mothering: Raising Your Children in Your Spare Time and with Your Spare Change 53 3.2. The Guardians of the “Stock of Knowledge” and the Child-rearing Industry 55 3.3. “Good” Mothering: A Middle-class Standard 58 3.4. The Mother Identity and the Power of Institutionalized Behavior 59 3.5. Enforcing the Ideology: The Criminalization of “Poor” Mothering 62 3.6. The Situated Context and Demoralization 65 Chapter 4 A Crying Baby: The Situated Context of Infanticide 70 4.1. A Crying Baby: Interpreting the Infant’s Actions 72 4.1.1. Stage I: Initial Action by the Baby 72 4.1.2. Stage II: The Mother Interprets the Baby’s Previous Move as Personally Offensive 74 4.1.3. Stage III: The Mother Becomes More Forceful in an Attempt to Restore Order 77 4.1.4. Stage IV: Continued Noncompliance by the Baby 80 4.2. A Challenge to the Mother Identity 82 4.3. Reflexive Monitoring/Reflective Intelligence and Emotion Work 85 Chapter 5 A Crying Baby and the Inability to Escape 92 5.1. Suffering and a Poor Quality of Life 92 5.2. Substance Use and Abuse 97 5.3. The Inability to Escape 98 5.4. Social Isolation 99 5.5. The Humiliation of Asking for Help 100 5.6. Using Force to Gain Compliance 102 5.7. The Assault 104 5.7.1. Stage V: Fatal Injury by the Mother 104 Chapter 6 Primary Prevention and Social Change 106 6.1. Primary Prevention 106 6.1.1. Stop Romanticizing and Teach the Reality of Child Rearing 107 6.1.2. Support for Family Planning 107 6.1.3. Social Nonacceptance of Hitting Children 107 6.1.4. Change the Expectations of Mothering ... 108 6.1.5. ... or Give Families More Time and Resources to Meet the Expectations 110 6.1.6. An Ability to Escape 110 6.1.7. Restructure Secondary Prevention to Provide More Meaningful Social Support to Families 113 Appendix A 116 Intensive Interview Guide 116 References 124 Index 134