At the start of last week, our nation was shocked by the discovery of a baby that had been abandoned in a drain. Today, a baby’s body has been discovered by children playing on a beach in Sydney.
We know very little about the circumstances that led to these babies being left alone. But it does lead us to ask whether mothers are being sufficiently supported in the first few days after giving birth – and whether we need a way for parents to safely abandon their children so that they aren’t left to die.
This article, published shortly after the first baby was found, outlines how often abandonment occurs, and what we must do to stop this happening in the future….
By AMY STOCKWELL
Yesterday morning, cyclists found a crying newborn baby hidden deep in a 2.4 metre drain.
It took three police officers to lift the concrete slab covering the drain, which weighed over 200kg.
While many aspects of this case remains clouded, one thing is clear: this baby was not meant to be found. Carefully hidden as it was, the child was likely left to die five or six days ago.
Until we know more about the baby’s mother’s circumstances, it is unhelpful to speculate about what would drive anyone to allegedly push a baby down a drain.
We can – in fact we must – consider how a situation like this might be prevented in the future.
How many babies are abandoned every year?
Thankfully, there are a very few babies abandoned in Australia every year. That we know of. Many have noted that the baby left in the drain was clearly never meant to be found and thus it is impossible to know how many other babies have died in this way.
These numbers are unreliable because there are, of course, babies who are never found. Babies whose gestation and birth were concealed and their bodies disposed of without detection. A French study in 2010 showed the murder of newborns by their mothers was five times larger than official estimates
The case of water polo star Keli Lane is now well known: she concealed three pregnancies and adopted out the children from two of them. Her second child, Tegan, was not seen after she left hospital with her mother in 1996. Lane was charged with the murder of Tegan in 2010, even though the child’s body has never been found.
Some reports say that about 10 abandoned babies are found in Australia each year, and most survive. We know that there were eight children found dead in public places in Australia between 2007 and 2010.
These babies were found face down in a toilet; in a pile of rubbish; in a shopping bag at a bus stop; in the grounds of a rural high school; wrapped in newspaper and left in the driveway of a house in a country town; on rubbish tip; at a water treatment plant; and in a shoebox in the garden of an apartment block.
Top Comments
When women are being shunted out of hospital sometimes less than 24hrs post-partum we are letting them down horribly, medically and socially. Adjusting to life with a newborn is major work, even if the child is wanted. These days women rarely have the family support they may have accessed in previous generations. We are casting them adrift without a paddle and wondering why they come to grief on the rocks. This is not taking into account circumstances such as post-partum psychosis, PND or other socio-economic difficulties. How can a woman's ability to care for a child be adequately assessed after such a short admission plus e occasional visit from a maternal and child health nurse? Blame political financial games for this appalling state of affairs.
Although I agree totally with the idea of safe baby-boxes and decriminalising abandonment, every effort must still be made to encourage, (not bully,) support and educate the mother to care for her child pre-natally and then whilst she's in hospital. The child has a right to live with it's own family, if it is at all possible. Of course, women should have the option of relinquishing the child with no legal consequences AT ANY POINT if is not going to be safely feasible. However, I take exception to the idea that this subject has anything at all to do with supporting childless couples. They are a completely separate consideration. Babies are not commodities. They are human beings who have the right to know their origins.
Baby drop offs in Australia are a MUST! Adoption laws need to change! Childless couples need to e supported and Mostly mothers who for whatever reason choose not to keep their babies Need to be supported and cared for.