A Wellesley woman was taken into custody during her arraignment this morning on charges stemming from the April death of a fetus whose mother she allegedly attacked at a Dorchester nail salon, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

AYANNA WOODHOUSE (D.O.B. 3/16/85) was formally charged today with manslaughter and aggravated assault and battery for the April 10 assault on a 26-year-old woman who was six months pregnant at the time. Woodhouse allegedly kicked and beat the woman so severely that her baby died early the next morning.

Assistant District Attorney Leora Joseph, chief of Conley’s Child Protection Team, recommended that Woodhouse be held on $25,000 cash bail. Suffolk Superior Court Clerk Magistrate Connie Wong set bail at $20,000 and ordered Woodhouse to stay away from the mother and check in weekly with the Department of Probation if she posts that amount.

“This is a serious charge,” Joseph said during her bail request. “The penalties are severe.”

Joseph told the court that the visibly-pregnant victim had gone to a manicure appointment at a Neponset Avenue nail salon on the evening of April 10. A short time later, Woodhouse entered the salon for her own appointment. The two women knew each other through Woodhouse’s cousin, who was the baby’s father.

The two of them began to chat,” Joseph said. “That chat slowly escalated to a heated argument.”

In the moments that followed, Joseph told the court, Woodhouse struck the woman, who fell to the ground. She continued to punch and kick the woman, even “dragging her across the floor of the salon.”

Witnesses shouted at Woodhouse to stop because the beating victim was pregnant, Joseph said. Several of the blows landed on the victim’s belly.

“It was a violent attack,” Joseph said, “and an attack where the victim had no chance.”

When the physical assault ended, both women left the salon and entered their own cars. The victim soon attempted to follow Woodhouse to her home, where Boston Police responded. Officers could not locate Woodhouse, who later surrendered to authorities.

The pregnant victim was later transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

“Initially, she appeared stable,” Joseph said, but “within four hours the fetal heartbeat was not detected.”

Doctors performed an emergency Caesarian section in the early morning hours of April 11, but the baby girl was stillborn. She was pronounced dead at about 3:00 a.m.

After autopsy, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the cause of her death to be placental abruption – a detachment of the placenta from the uterus – due to maternal trauma.

A homicide charge may be brought in the death of an unborn baby if the fetus was medically viable at the time of the trauma that ended its life. At six months, medical experts agreed, the victim in this case was medically viable.

Kathryn DiPerna is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. The defendant is represented by attorney John Hayes and will return to court on Aug. 12.