A 39-year-old woman from Rijsbergen has appeared in court, charged with attempting to kill her baby by drinking alcohol and using drugs while pregnant, Omroep Brabant has reported.

The public prosecution department said the woman used drugs in the last five months of her pregnancy and refused to have contact with officials, including the regional health board. Her three other children are in care.

“We have never taken legal action against a mother like this before,” the prosecutor said during Friday’s preliminary hearing.

The baby was born three months ago and is healthy.

As well as alcohol, the woman was a regular user of party drug GHB and the “zombie drug” flakka, which is smoked in a pipe. She also has what the court said is a toxic relationship with the baby’s father.

The main trial will take place in November, but the court ordered the woman and her baby to be released from prison and moved to a new safe house. She was also told to cooperate with social services and to stop using all drugs and alcohol.

Child protection services have welcomed the decision to prosecute the mother, broadcaster NOS said. “It can lead to other mothers becoming aware that what they are doing is illegal,” said spokeswoman Bianca Poldervaart. “But the most important thing is that we can help this mother.”

If social services are concerned about the safety of an unborn baby, they can ask the courts to place the child under their supervision, something which happens some 300 times a year.  Even though this woman had a social worker, she continued to use drugs, NOS said.  

Leiden youth law professor Mariëlle Bruning told the broadcaster she understood the public prosecutor’s reasoning but said a conviction will be complicated. “There is no legal basis for it,” she said. “Lawyers will have to extend legal provisions to unborn children and the question of whether they are human or not.”