TROIS-RIVIÈRES, Que. — The director of a Quebec homeless shelter is urging empathy after a 38-year-old unhoused woman was charged for allegedly abandoning her newborn outside in the cold shortly after giving birth on the street on New Year's Day.
The woman, who can't be named because of a publication ban protecting the infant, was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday in Trois-Rivières, Que., about 125 kilometres northeast of Montreal. She has been charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life to her baby, who survived.
Trois-Rivières police spokesperson Stéphanie Côté says police received a call shortly after 3 p.m. on Jan. 1 regarding a woman who had given birth on a downtown street. Officers arrived at the scene and found the baby, who was being cared for by passersby who stopped to help, Côté said.
The mother was located by police officers a few blocks away, and both she and the child were taken to hospital. Côté says the baby was only outside in the cold for a few minutes but remains under observation in a Montreal children's hospital, where his or her condition is unknown.
Côté said the priority of responding officers was to ensure the mother and baby were safe. "After that, we proceed to police work," she said in a phone interview.
Karine Dahan, the executive director of Centre Le Havre, which provides homeless services, said the woman was experiencing homelessness and had not known she was pregnant. She had been using the centre's shelter services up until the day before she gave birth, Dahan said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
She said it may not be a priority for women living on the street to listen to their bodies — inattentiveness that can lead them to miss the signs of pregnancy. But while "poverty and vulnerability" might be exacerbating factors in the woman's case, Dahan also stressed that thousands of women around the world each year carry pregnancies unknowingly, leaving them mentally unprepared for a birth experience that becomes "a tsunami and a trauma."
"So I can, without excusing it, but I can understand that at that moment there's a fear and a panic that mixes in, and you feel like you've done something wrong rather than having given birth to a wonderful little being," she said.
She said she hopes the woman's story leads to more and better resources for women in precarious situations, pregnant or not.
A spokesperson for the Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec health authority said it could not comment on the health of the mother or infant for privacy reasons.
"While these situations are rare, they've very upsetting," the authority wrote, noting that there are resources available to support vulnerable people, including pregnant women and parents struggling to care for children.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2025.
— By Morgan Lowrie in Montreal
The Canadian Press
