A French woman who admitted to giving birth to and smothering eight babies over a 17-year period.Video.

Daughters: Mom accused of killing 8 babies 'secretive'
By the CNN Wire Staff July 30, 2010 -- Updated 1309 GMT (2109 HKT)

Douai, France (CNN) -- A French woman who admitted to giving birth to and smothering eight babies over a 17-year period was secretive but always supportive of her family, two of her daughters said in a local newspaper report published Friday.

"It's incomprehensible," Virginie, 21, told La Voix du Nord newspaper.

"She was secretive, but she never judged us. She accompanied us. She supported us," she said.
The woman, Dominique Cottrez, told investigators she killed the babies because she did not want to have any more children and did not want to see doctors for contraceptives, prosecutor Eric Vaillant told reporters. Cottrez is overweight and was able to conceal the pregnancies, he said. On Thursday, prosecutors said they had charged her with murder.

Cottrez said she hid the pregnancies and deaths from her husband, Vaillant said. And daughters Virginie and Emeline, who came to court to support their mother Thursday, told La Voix du Nord they were also shocked by the news.

"We never noticed anything. She had moments of fatigue, it's true, but she was working almost 24 hours a day. She would wake up early for her work as a nurse's home aid, and when she would return home, she had her housework," the newspaper reported the daughters' saying.

They described their mother as a caring person who often babysat her grandchildren.

"For us, it's something that one sees on television, but not in a little town like ours," Emeline said, according to La Voix du Nord.
The case came to light when a couple gardening in their backyard in the northern town of Villers-au-Tertre found two babies' bodies in sealed plastic bags and called police.
As word spread and reporters descended on the village, which local media have said has a population of about 700 people, residents said they were still reeling from the news.
Cottrez, 45, grew up in Villers-au-Tertre. Her parents, farmers who are now dead, owned a large part of the arable land in the village, according to La Voix du Nord.
Thursday morning, the village priest left eight candles in front of the door to the couple's home, La Voix du Nord reported.
Police spoke to Cottrez and her husband, who had previously lived in the home, and Cottrez admitted immediately that she was the mother of the two babies the couple found gardening, Vaillant said. She then told police about six others concealed in their garage, Vaillant said.

Those six bodies were also in sealed plastic bags but were covered by various objects, he said.

The babies were born between 1989 and 2006, but their exact birthdates aren't known, Vaillant said.

Cottrez, a nurse, had psychological problems from her first pregnancy, said Pierre-Jean Gribouva, the lawyer for her husband.

"My client is in a deep state of shock," Gribouva told CNN affiliate BFM. "He had no idea about this. He has totally fallen apart."

A difficult first pregnancy sparked Cottrez's actions, Vaillant said. Because of her weight, the first pregnancy was "traumatic," and she didn't want to go through it again, he said.

Vaillant did not explain why Cottrez went through a second pregnancy with her other daughter before apparently committing the crimes.

The father, Pierre-Marie Cottrez, hopes the public does not make "simplistic conclusions" about his wife, Gribouva told BFM.

Despite earlier reports that the husband had been charged, Vaillant said he was free to go but may still be investigated. Vaillant said he personally still had "doubts" about the father's story.

"The sky has fallen in on his head," Vaillant said of the father.