JAN 13, 2020
Experts explain the 'maternal desire' psychology behind Heidi Broussard baby kidnapping
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In rare cases, the fantasy leads to criminal acts: stealing a child, or kidnapping and killing a mother a taking her child.
FBI behavioral analysts believe a Houston woman was driven to kidnap her friend’s infant and hide the mother’s corpse in a car in her backyard by an overwhelming compulsion to have a baby that they term “maternal desire.”
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“The desire to have a child can become pathological,” said Asim Shah, professor and executive vice chair of Community Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine. “When the woman so desperately wants a child, she may try to take one from somebody close to her.”
More Information
Profile of an infant abductor, based on an analysis of cases that occurred between 1983 and 2007 by the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children:
Usually female of "childbearing" age (between 12 and 50.)
Often overweight.
Compulsive and frequently relies on manipulation, lying and deception.
Usually states she has lost a baby, or is incapable of having a child.
Often married or cohabiting with a male partner.
Frequently, the abductor lives or is familiar with the community where the abduction takes place.
Usually visits the nursery or maternity ward at more than one healthcare facility prior to the abduction, and has asked detailed questions about procedures and the maternity floor layout.
May also try to abduct from the home setting.
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The motive of maternal desire may develop after one or more failed pregnancies. Or a woman who has not been pregnant may completely fabricate a pregnancy.
The women driven by the compulsive desire to have a baby meticulously plan schemes to obtain infants. The lengths women have gone to range from impersonating medical workers to quietly steal children to befriending and manipulating pregnant women to gain access to their babies.
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“It’s erratic, abnormal behavior,” Shah said. “It happens usually in people who are either depressed, anxious, have a psychosis or personality disorder, or are in a delusional state.”
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There have been 327 infant abductions across the nation since 1964, according to an analysis by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Of those, only about 5 percent were reportedly motivated by maternal desire.
Though violent infant abductions fueled by a woman’s pathological obsession with becoming a mother are relatively rare, recent cases have devastated communities across the nation. A 2017 case in Houston was apparently sparked by a miscarriage.
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Some cases don’t end in bloodshed. In Pittsburgh in 2012, Breona Moore, then 19, told her boyfriend that he couldn’t break up with her because she was pregnant. But she wasn’t. Instead, Moore
impersonated a nurse and stole a newborn baby from Magee-Womens Hospital. She posted baby photos on social media and convinced her friends and family that the baby was hers. She was sentenced to five years in prison.
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Elaborate planning
In the first phase of an infant abduction motivated by maternal desire, psychiatric professionals say, studies of the cases indicate the women went to great lengths to use deception to act out a pregnancy fantasy.
In Fiearmusca’s case, her warrant says all the people around her believed she was pregnant, including Broussard. Green said he touched Fieramusca’s stomach, and that it felt hard like she was pregnant, but never saw her bare stomach.
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In cases in which the woman was never pregnant in the first place, she may pretend to be pregnant because she perceives mothers to be held in a higher regard in society and desperately wants to be one. In other cases, the woman may want to restore a failing relationship.
“They may be insecure in a relationship and their hope is that if they have a child, their relationship will be secure,” said Sanjay Adahia, a forensic psychiatrist at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.
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In maternal desire abductions, psychiatrists say the act of taking the baby is not impulsive -- it’s been planned extensively. The women rehearse their stories and become obsessed with their plan. They may impersonate a healthcare professional or nanny to gain access to a baby, or they may befriend an expecting mother.
Fieramusca had known Broussard for more than a decade, talked to her on the phone regularly and was there for the birth of Margo on Nov. 26, police said.
“They will try to copy the person that is actually pregnant,” said Shah.
Fieramusca told Broussard that they had conceived at the same, police said. The online baby registry lists Dec. 12 — the day Broussard went missing — as Fieramusca’s delivery due date.
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In the final phase, after the baby has been taken, the woman will attempt to enter the child into her social circle as her own.
“They are so focused on the child that they end up believing that they are actually the mother,” Shah said.
Warning signs
The intensity of the would-be mother’s emotions can sometimes provide warning signs.
Broussard’s family found it odd when Fieramusca interrupted Margo’s first meeting with her grandfather in the hospital so she could hold the baby.
Such possessive behavior toward a baby can be a sign of an unhealthy desire, Adahia said.
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