BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Deborah Mackey
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FRANKLIN — The struggle for survival by a tiny infant abandoned by her Middletown mother Monday has triggered a public outpouring of offers of help.
On Wednesday, the little girl remained in critical condition at Dayton's Children's Medical Center. She was dubbed “Baby Hope” by those who found her in the woman's restroom of a Franklin company but called “Baby Girl Mackey” by Butler County officials overseeing her adoption.
On Tuesday, the baby's mother, Deborah Mackey, was charged with attempted murder. Police say she told them of delivering the baby and leaving it in a trash can to die. (Wednesday story)
While doctors tend to the infant, officials have been besieged with solicitations to adopt the girl or act as foster parents. There also have been offers of money donations to help the girl, who was born six weeks premature.
“We've even had three women, who recently gave birth, call us offering their breast milk,” said Belinda Monnin, spokeswoman for the hospital.
Ms. Monnin said the center's phone lines have been flooded with calls offering assistance. Callers are forwarded to the Butler County Children Services Board, where officials are so swamped, they have a separate automated phone message and voice-mail system to handle calls.
But despite the offers, a nagging question remains: Why would a mother hide a pregnancy and then bury her newborn in trash?
There are no easy explanations, national medical experts say.
“Doctors don't have a name for it, but it's denial,” said Phillip Goldstein, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. “The denial in these women is so strong. Many will deny they are pregnant at all. Although that is amazing to us, that's what happens.”
Ms. Mackey hid her pregnancy from co-workers at Ample Industries Inc. in Franklin until she gave birth Monday in the plant's restroom. After burying the baby in a trash can, she calmly excused herself as ill and went home, say fellow employees who discovered the infant.
Ms. Mackey has publicly said nothing in her defense or tried to make any explanation.
Warren County Correction Facility officials said the 38-year-old Ms. Mackey, who is single and has no children, “has been unusually quiet and has a blank stare” about her.
Neighbors said Ms. Mackey was living with a boyfriend in Middletown. Authorities have not identified the father.
Harold Fishbein, a professor in the University of Cincinnati's Department of Psychology, said that each case of newborn killing or desertion differs, but they do have some similar aspects.
“She (Ms. Mackey) was probably in a situation — either at work, with her boyfriend or family — where she did not want to have to care for this baby,” he said.
He said that among psychologists, there has been a “sea change” in diagnosis from decades ago when such deadly behavior would routinely be attributed to defects in personality and character. “But now we're more likely, professionally, to look at social influences,” such as relationships, work or family stresses, he said.
Any mother willing to hide a pregnancy and then attempt to kill the newborn must be living in a world of “tremendous ambivalence,” he said.
Cases involving mothers who either kill or abandon newborns are not a new phenomenon, experts say.
Among ancient Romans, infanticide was so prevalent at times, it was reported that sewers would periodically clog with murdered newborns and their afterbirth, said Dr. Goldstein. He added that medieval times saw the crime of infanticide punished by placing the mother in a burlap bag with a snake, a chicken and a cat then tied shut and tossed into a river.
“Everyone has always agreed — we abhor infanticide,” he said.
But he added that the crime is considered even more terrible now given our society's many alternatives — in birth control, abortion and adoption — to killing or abandoning an unwanted newborn.
Capt. Gerry Massey of the Franklin Police Department said he understands why some are angry at Ms. Mackey — especially mothers who cannot conceive and want to adopt the infant.
But he also is happy to see the public support. “I'm glad to see that people are not numbed to this. Our hearts and our prayers are going out to that little girl,” said Capt. Massey, who said one of his officers has delivered a teddy bear to the baby.
Other babies abandoned in Tristate
