BEIJING, Jan. 24 -- A 19-year-old woman was charged with murder for smothering her 4-day-old daughter as the infant suckled at her breast.

    The Shanghai woman told a court yesterday that she killed the child of her former boyfriend because the infant complicated her relations with her current lover.

    She also said she didn't know she was six months' pregnant until her coworkers said she was getting fat and she went for an examination.

    According to the Minhang District Prosecutors' Office, Lin Zhen, the suspect, gave birth to a healthy baby in the Shanghai No. 5 People's Hospital on October 4 last year.

    Four days later, Lin suffocated the baby by covering her nose and mouth while she breast-feeded the baby in the early morning.

    The young woman told the Minhang District People's Court yesterday that she was just 19 and deeply regretted the killing.

    Under questioning, Lin discussed her two lovers.

    The former boyfriend surnamed Huang - father of the child - had been her classmate. They broke up because the unemployed man always borrowed money from her.

    Another man surnamed Zhang soon became Lin's new boyfriend and they began to live together last March.

    Lin found out she was six months' pregnant after coworkers said she was putting on weight; she went to a hospital for an examination. She said it was Huang's child.

    But she told Zhang it was his child because she didn't want to offend him.

    Lin was unable to contact Huang. She asked Huang's father to take the child, but he told her to take care of the problem herself, she testified.

    She asked her obstetrician whether she could give her baby to others, but he did not respond.

    Zhang, meanwhile, said he wanted to marry her and would take her to his hometown during the Spring Festival.

    Zhang was kind, while Huang's family was indifferent. People were gossiping that the baby was Huang's, not Zhang's.

    She was confused and distraught, she said.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)