Calgary experts say infanticide cases rare

Two Calgary women have been charged with infanticide in less than a week, but that doesn't mean it is widespread, experts in Calgary say.

Robbie Babins-Wagner, the head of the Calgary Counselling Centre, says even though infanticide is rare, she often sees parents having problems coping with a newborn.

Other family members should get outside help if it's getting to be too much for the mother or father, she said.

"Have family seen any signs?" Babins-Wagner said. "We would hope that they would take action or do something."

Infanticide can result when parents don't understand the stress of dealing with a newborn, says John Winterdyk, a criminologist at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

"Quite often in these economic times, social times and everything else that's going on in the world, it seems these days it puts some women in a very tenuous situation," he said.

On Friday, Stacey Joy Bourdeaux, 33, was charged with second-degree murder after confessing to police about her infant son's death in 2004.

On Wednesday, Shelby Anna Herchak, 18, was charged in the death of her newborn son.