Most recently, the Sandton Chronicle reported on a baby that had been found abandoned by its mother – left for dead on the side of the road.
As a mother myself, I cannot understand how a woman can carry a child for nine months and feel so little attachment – such little concern – for the well-being of the tiny human being who has no other protection than that of its mother.
I understand being scared. I understand feeling alone. And believe me, I understand the panic of hearing a baby’s first cry.
I even understand why some mothers might not want to keep their babies. Maybe this mother was very young, particularly poor or in bad health. Maybe she honestly believed that she couldn’t give the child a quality life.
But how could she think that the only option available to her was abandonment? Is she not the least bit concerned about what will happen to her beautiful child? How would she have felt if the little baby had died – would she even have known?
How desperate must the mother have been to do this to her own child – and how do we as a society allow a situation to become so grave that a mother could possibly believe that leaving her child alone on the side of the road was her best option.
What happens to that little baby now? Well it goes into the care of social services, and then disappears into a system overflowing with abandoned, unwanted and orphaned children.
There are options. There are people that can help. Speak to members of the police, community leaders, ward councillors, family elders, the press – anyone.
Perhaps I am naive, but I honestly believe that there is always someone who is willing to help if you just ask.
Thankfully the baby survived the incident. And if that was the quality of the parent she was born to, perhaps it is better that she be raised elsewhere. I hope beyond belief that she will find a family that will love her, care for her and treat her with the adoration that babies all deserve.
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