In the news this week, a newborn was found in a ditch at around 6 a.m. naked buy still covered in bodily fluids. It was around 20 degrees here when this baby was found.
HOW does this happen?
The mother for lack of a better word has not come forward yet. The police are saying they are not interested in pressing charges at this time.
I don't understand for the life of me how someone can bring a life into this world and then just toss the child into a ditch...no blanket, no bath...nothing
Even if she were very very young, most 10-11 yo girls won't even put a pet out in this frigid weather...so how does one toss a baby out?
This sort of horrible thing has been the norm for milenia in many cultures, and continues to be so in many other countries more so than our own..Who knows the psychological and physiological reasons why people, who normally (often) would never consider such an act, do so? I feel so badly for these children, but can't begin to understand what drives their parents to do such things...
As badly as we and society may feel for a mother "without" resources, that doesn't mean she can't hand the new born child to someone at some point and tell them she can't handle taking care of it, whether that be a family member, friend or someone she will run into at some point....Just because the great resources aren't overflowing does not excuse someone for discarding a person like so much trash...EVEN if that "mother" hasn't made the emotional connection that the infant is a person...That is simply my opinion.....If it were an animal, more resources and charges would be assembled against the person involved, unfortunately, animals these days have more rights and protection that newborns tossed out into the street ....Sad and tragic all the way around.
Here's another spin that is bound to get me flamed. IT'S OK I AM A BIG GIRL and I have my suit on:
In college I knew a girl who became pregnant. Now it was not obvious to her friends and aquaintances in college, she was very thin and managed to camoflage it in big clothes etc. I lived in the same dorm as she and yet did NOT KNOW SHE WAS PREGNANT, either. Well, time came the girl went into labor.
Shockingly, She labored alone in her dorm room (she had a private room,so no roommate to discover her even) and delivered a stillborn baby. Not knowing what to do, I am certain, and probably in shock, the girl wrapped the dead child in sheets and tossed the body down the trash chute.
Yes, the next day the baby was found. And soon enough, they were able to find out what happened--- as I came to learn---- this gal developed some serious complications from her unattended birth.
She was 18. She was alone. She was 300 miles from home. No parents there for her in the aftermath, which tells me they probably were not there for her to go to in the first place. NO boy friend in sight. Don't know what happened there. Should she have gone to PP or some other "crisis center"? No doubt, but for whatever reason, she did not. Fear, ignorance, I am not sure.But it was a sad story.
Do I feel horror at this story? yes. Do I feel sympathy for this girl? Oh yes, I do. I don't even know the story of the conception; maybe the pregnancy was result of rape, for all I know. SHE HAS A STORY SHE DID NOT GET TO TELL, is what I saying...it was sad. All the papers detailed was the story of the baby in the trash chute and who the mother was and that the baby was, in fact, dead when he ( I dinstinctly remember them saying it was a BOY), was put there. Nothing about HER and her mental state or even how she was doing after recovery. This girl wound up in a psychiatric ward for a while after this incident, and to this day, I have no idea what became of her. Now, knowing PERSONALLY the story I told you, I have some questions in my mind before I convict the unknown mother of this poor dead baby:
Could it POSSIBLY BE this baby was born stillborn, too, to an equally-terrified young mother who had no resources and FELT , at least in her mind, she had NO WHERE TO TURN? Maybe it's possible. Am I horrified? yes. AM I sorry? yes. But do we KNOW HER SIDE OF THIS TRAGIC STORY? NO!
SO before we crucify her in our minds, let us be mindful we don't know the whole story. We don't even know if the baby was born alive before it was tragically "dumped". Let's try to remember there is always more than one side to story and how much the media LOVES to SHOCK and HORRIFY. After all, it sells newspapers, right??????
I am waiting to hear "the rest of the story" before I lay judgement on this girl. I know not *her* story.
I too want to hear the whole story. After the shock of hearing such a terrible thing I wonder what went so wrong for the baby's mother to do such a thing. Was she young without a clue about what to do? What was her physical, emotional state after giving birth? Did she panic?
I think it is a great idea as one of the poster's informed us to have a safe place to for a newborn such as a hospital or police station that the mother can drop the baby off until her mental state has improved or to be placed for adoption. It is not the best situation in the word but certainly better than having babies abandoned in freezing ditches.
Specializes in Case Mgmt; Mat/Child, Critical Care.
Yes, what this mother did to her baby is truly heinous, any time a parent injures and/or kills a baby it is a terrible thing. Like when Susan Smith drove her children into the lake so she could run off w/her boyfriend...that made NO sense, she didn't have to kill those sweet babies! Clearly, these women are unbalanced, some even to the point of major insanity.
With these young girls dropping off babies in dumpsters, on the highway, etc, I, too, am of the belief that I would like to know the whole story...as terrible as the action is, clearly SOMETHING in this young womans life is wrong, probably EVERYTHING in her life was screwed up at this point...
Very tragic situation all the way around. God Bless those babies...
Where I live I believe a woman can drop off her baby at any hospital, I think Police Department too, with out any questions. There was a baby taken out of an apartment in the northeren part on MN the day before. 4 mo old baby girl, broken window-20 degrees INSIDE the apartment! Very sad! Luckily-an alert utilites worker (gas man, I think), heard the baby crying and saw the broken window and called the police. Baby was recovering in hospital, then the mother's aunt took her.
Mom was arrested...turns out she was HIGH on METH when she left the baby alone!! Obviously must have been gone for awhile.
ITA with all the other posts about people who want to have babies and can't and then people like this pooping them out!!
I will NOT convict this person in my mind until I know the WHOLE story, first!!! I want to know about HER , too.
ITA..your story about college rings true...there are so many factors in a persons life that are left out of these news stories. Do I condone this...no way. Do I want to keep my mind open to the fact that there could have been some thing else going on....yes.
Oh yeah, ADNRN ..and I must be a psycopath....me and many other women in the world....women you even know and trust. It sickens me to think ppl think like this.
This is truly a sad story and I wish nothing but the best for the infant, however, I cannot sit here and be consumed with hatred for this mother nor wonder how she could have come to the point to do what she did.
Like SmilingBlueEyes said, there may be more to the story.
We don't know if she was a 16 year old girl out of her mind living in fear of her changing body and every day hoping and praying that no one would discover her secret. Fearful that her family would find out what had happened to her and how they might rebuke her. Perhaps even more fearful of society's reaction.
I can't know what it's like to be that girl but the thought of being in her shoes for one minute scares the h-ll out of me and I'm 28 years old.
It makes me mad to see people "popping" babies out left and right with no regard to their care. But I think we all know that not every sexual encounter and perhaps resulting pregnancy is planned nor wanted. Sometimes I think in these cases the problem isn't with the mother so much as it is to society. It seems the same people that would condemn a woman for doing such a haneous act would be the same ones to publicly scold her for having an illigitimate child or for being "loose" if she continuted with her pregnancy and kept her child.
What she did is deplorable but I cannot sit and judge her.
And you are a nurse. Heinous commentary .....Even more frightening to me.
So you think any woman who chooses abortion is a "garden variety psychopath"...
Clearly, these women are unbalanced, some even to the point of major insanity.
ADNRN
143 Posts
I think you should interpret what I wrote in any way that strikes you as true.