As a breastfeeding mother I am eternally paranoid about what I put in my body.
Food, drinks, alcohol, medications, I am wary of all of them. I would never want to consume anything that would cross into my milk and hurt my little boy and the thought that another mother could do exactly that with the intention of hurting their child is just unfathomable. Sadly that is what one mother in America has just been convicted of.
Stephanie Greene, 39, from South Carolina was involved in a major traffic accident in 1998, in which her skull and pelvis were fractured and she claims to still be in such debilitating pain that she needs copious amounts of pain killers just to get out of bed in the morning.
Stephanie used to be a nurse, but had her licence revoked in 2004 for being irrational at work, trying to call in a prescription illegally and refusing to submit to a drug test when her behaviour was questioned.
When Stephanie became pregnant in 2010 she hid her pregnancy from her normal doctor, getting a gynaecological referral by requesting an appointment to discuss birth control. The gynaecologist had no knowledge of the pain medication Stephanie was taking because she chose to hide it from her, lying on forms and in appointments. Meanwhile Stephanie continued to see her regular doctor and several other doctors to get her numerous prescriptions filled throughout her pregnancy while making every conceivable effort to hide her ever growing tummy. When her daughter, Alexis Catherine Greene was born on September 28th 2010, Stephanie decided to breastfeed and continued to take her medications with no concern for the welfare of her child.
Stephanie called 911 on the morning of November 13th, stating that she had found her 46-day-old daughter unconscious in her cot.
In the call she sounded groggy and unfocused, according to the 911 operator, and despite her medical training when she attempted CPR she started on the babies back before being advised to turn her over and had trouble counting to keep pace, stumbling and losing her place.
The little girl died on November 13th 2010, from an overdose of morphine. Toxicology reports show she had enough morphine in her system to be considered a lethal dose for an average adult as well as signs of three other drugs which have not been named. When police entered Stephanie’s home after the passing of her daughter they found numerous pill bottles and painkiller patches all over her bedroom and bedside table, well within reach of her then 4-year-old son. Most of her prescriptions were later found to be unlawfully obtained by ‘doctor shopping’ several different doctors in her area.
Part of the prosecutions case was based on Stephanie’s work history, claiming that as a nurse she knew exactly what affects the medication she was taking would have on her baby and she also knew how to work the system in order to keep getting her prescriptions even though she was pregnant. Even under normal circumstances with no pregnancy involved she was not allowed to be prescribed anywhere near as much medication as she had. Solicitor Barry Barnes said,
“This is not an indictment on breast feeding; she loved her drugs more than she loved her baby”
Stephanie Greene was sentenced on April 4th 2014 to the minimum term of 20 years in jail for homicide by child abuse, unlawful neglect of a child and involuntary manslaughter. She will not be eligible for parole until she has served at least 16 years.
She is also yet to be prosecuted for 38 counts of fraudulently obtaining prescription medication and this is expected to add at least several years to her sentence.
Her lawyers are planning to appeal the sentence on the grounds that the prosecution did not prove if it is possible for that much morphine to pass through into breast milk or how the baby ingested the morphine. They are actually suggesting that Alexis may have eaten it herself, obviously with no consideration for the total lack of motor skills displayed by a baby this new.
Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2596900/SC-woman-gets-20-years-breast-feeding-overdose.html
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/stephanie-greene-mum-who-killed-3380801
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/04/stephanie-greene-breast-milk_n_5093118.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/breast-milk-murder-gets-south-carolina-mother-20-years-in-prison/
