QUINCY, Mass. - A pregnant Massachusetts woman accused of killing her 9-year-old daughter and stabbing herself in the stomach to kill her unborn child could be arraigned in her hospital bed on Friday, a district attorney said.

Fang Chi Xue, 38, was treated for self-inflicted stab wounds to the arms and abdomen at Boston Medical Center and is expected to be arraigned on two counts of murder, Norfolk District Attorney William Keating said. She was 7½ months pregnant.

Police were called to the family home in Quincy, just south of Boston, at about 10:30 Thursday night by the children's father, who had been at work during the attack. Authorities initially said a 14-year-old daughter who survived made the 911 call, but later said the girl called her father, and the father then called police.

The teen appeared to have been the victim of an attempted strangling, Keating said.

The 9-year-old girl suffered stab wounds to her wrists, but authorities are also investigating whether she was poisoned. An autopsy is scheduled.

Keating said the incident was sparked by an argument, but would not offer more details.

Whether Xue is arraigned in her hospital bed depends on her medical condition, he said.

There have been five domestic slayings in Norfolk County in the past month, a pattern Keating calls "unnerving."

A 23-year-old Milton man killed two of his sisters in late March before police shot him. Another man is facing charges for allegedly killing his blind aunt March 23 in the Plainville apartment they shared.

"In conversations with other district attorneys, domestic violence is a growing problem across the state," he said. "I know in Norfolk County we're deeply disturbed."

The roughly 400-square mile county stretches from the Rhode Island border to the edge of Boston, and is made up of many middle class and affluent communities. The population as of the 2000 census was about 650,000.

Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Children and Families, said the agency is investigating, but would not say whether the department has been involved with the family in the past.