New baby safe opened in Bay
Alternative comes as experts note increase in unsafe abandonments
A new baby safe was opened in Bethelsdorp at the weekend, as experts warn that the number of babies being abandoned in dangerous places is on the rise.
Elmarie van der Merwe, from Forever Family Homes, said the safe was at the home of a foster mother.
There is already a safe at her own home in Walmer.
Recently another NGO, Hannah’s Arms, installed a baby safe in Zwide, near Dora Nginza Hospital.
“We have funding for another two safes. We are looking to find good locations for both,” Van der Merwe said.
A baby safe is a metal box lined with blankets where a desperate mother can place her child.
Once the door is closed the baby can no longer be retrieved from the outside and an alarm or a phone call will alert a support team that a baby has been placed in the safe.
Fifteen babies have been abandoned in Nelson Mandela Bay since January 2017.
One of these children died after being left at a construction site in Zwide. Another miraculously survived after she was found in a stormwater drain by a passerby.
In another incident in 2018, a baby was handed to a vagrant woman in Central.
Babies were also left in vehicles, on the side of the road and at a rubbish dump.
Child protection activist Luke Lamprecht said there had been a definite increase in the dangerous abandonment of babies in South Africa,
He said research showed that up to 70% of abandonments were unsafe, with many babies never found.
“I recently presented at a conference of pathologists and what we found was very interesting,” Lamprecht said.
“One of the doctors working in a casualty unit in the Eastern Cape said she noticed that when students return to university after the long holidays they see a massive increase in premature babies and miscarriages,” he said.
“Statistics of child abandonment are difficult to find.
“I work in the slightly more grim world where the children die due to unsafe abandonment and illegal abortions.”
Lamprecht said that, ideally, when the body of a dead baby was found it should be sent for an autopsy to determine if the child was viable, in which case a case of murder should be opened, or if it was a case of concealment of birth.
“The law says a woman cannot be charged with murder if the baby didn’t take a breath on its own.”
He said he was involved in a Gauteng case in 2018 in which a 15-year-old was charged with murder after she gave birth to a baby and put the body in a bucket under her bed.
“She gave birth after being provided with medication by an illegal termination of pregnancy clinic. The baby was found to have breathed on its own and the girl was charged with murder.”
He said many of the bodies of babies found on dumps or elsewhere were too decomposed for pathologists to do the tests to determine if they were able to breathe on their own.
There are very few statistics on child abandonment in SA but research done by abandonment expert Dee Blackie estimates that about 3,500 children are abandoned in the country each year.
This figure only reflects those who are found alive.
Research published by Lamprecht indicates that figures compiled in Gauteng show that for every abandoned child found alive, two more are found dead.
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