Action / Reaction

Don't forget, peaople are animals, and not always responsible for our actions.

Yesterday morning I was listening to the new headlines on Sonic, and they mentioned a woman in Saskatchewan who walked into a Wal-mart store, gave birth in the washroom, and left 15 minutes later with out the infant. Charges had not been laid. (article here)

I don’t think charges should be laid in instances like this. I agree that she did not behave in the most socially acceptable way, but society over-looks the most basic foundation to our existence. WE ARE ANIMALS. At times we may have the brain capacity to force ourselves to stand upright, and dance pretty, and write and read and build skyscrapers, but at the end of the day, we are still animals, with animal instincts and animal reactions.

In our world, four-legged animals give birth daily. Some animals will deliver their offspring and guard them and care for them and nurture them. Other animals abandon their offspring. Others eat their offspring. Some may go on to have later births where they react in a different manner than the first. Forget that we walk on two legs and put us back on the level with these animals, because that is where we belong.

In times of stress, people sometimes do unpredictable and “socially unacceptable” things. Animal instinct causes most women to protect their infants, but not everyone has that innate ability. Sometimes, something can go wrong and even the “smartest” of women can react in a totally unpredictable fashion. It could be a long term reaction, or it could be a momentary lapse. The birthing process, and the pain associated with it, is more than just stress to a body, it a HUGE shock to the body's system.

My point is, I do not believe that society has any right to “press charges” against a women (and often they are scared, young girls). The threat should not even be present. By threatening this action, I imagine that most women who may snap out of it shortly are no less inclined to fess up to their lapse in judgment out of fear of being persecuted for it.

I do know that I have seen my own animal self-preservation instinct in action against my own baby. When Miranda was a few months old, I was cuddling her up by my neck. She was hungry and in her search for food, she bit my neck. IT HURT!! Seething in pain, the first reaction I had, of which I had no control over, was to hurl away from my body the object that was causing me said pain. My arms actually pulled her away from me, and held her out in front of me. Only some small thread of rational behaviour caused me to hang on to her, and stop myself from throwing her away from me. Did I want to hurt her… no! Did I hurt her... no.

These scared, shocked women, who give birth in private and abandon their babies, need to be treated with some understanding. Yes, these infants deserve to be treated with the utmost care and respect, but as society, we may have failed these women if they are uneducated and ill-prepared and alone.