Cyclists taking a weekend ride on a cycle path beside the M7 at Quakers Hill investigated the sound of a crying baby - and discovered the source was coming from a storm water drain. It took the combined efforts of six men to remove the concrete drain cover, and discover a baby wrapped in a hospital blanket. It was evident that this child had been pushed through the small opening and allowed to drop 2.4 metres to the bottom of the drain floor. Distressed and hungry in the forty degrees heat, Paramedics rushed the victim to the Children's Hospital at Westmead where examining doctors found the child to be "serious but stable ".
Investigations began immediately and that hospital blanket was the vital clue that led police to the child's thirty year old mother. She is being interviewed and no doubt we will learn just what harrowing personal circumstances led to a perfectly healthy baby boy being dumped in a drain with only sheer good luck the factor in his survival. It is doubtful that he would have survived to the end of that day in the weather conditions prevailing.
This incident raises an issue that has been long neglected in this state. We need a safe refuge for desperate people who can no longer safely look after a child to turn to as a last resort. In some countries, that is the local fire station. The central fire station in many areas is manned 24/7 and has a hatch connected to a time delay alarm where a child can be deposited. This is on a "no questions asked "basis and the short time delay alarm allows the person depositing to safely exit the scene.
The reasons that people use this are many and varied. It used to be the shame of an unwed mother that led to many babies being abandoned, but these days it is often connected to mental illness, homelessness, a dangerous domestic situation, hopeless drug dependency - or just pervading isolation and depression that makes a mother feel unable to cope any longer.
The most important factor - is the survival of the baby. There has to be a better solution than just dumping it down a storm water drain. If we create a safe refuge it is vitally important that this be common knowledge and be prominent on the public announcements that urge people to use the 000 number and list the essential services available.
Unfortunately, dumping a baby is not uncommon. We may remember the huge amount of publicity when a desperate father dumped a baby at a busy airport and flew away overseas. Then there was the long running saga of a mother charged with murdering a baby which did not fit in with her sport addicted lifestyle. It seems that in the vast majority of such cases, they happen because the person responsible for the child sees no other available option - and that is a tragedy !
In many cases abandoned babies are reunited with their mother or father when the circumstances that led to abandonment are rectified , but if not there is every chance that the child can find a new family able and willing to provide a loving family life. We actually have a shortage of children available for adoption in this country, and many people venture overseas to try and overcome this shortage.
In recent times, complete strangers have been surprised to hear their doorbell ring - and find an abandoned baby on their doorstep. At least that disturbed parent has taken a chance and hoped that a random house selection would yield a humane and sympathetic stranger who would call emergency services and see that the child was given the attention needed.
This "baby in a storm drain " illustrates that we need to do more than just trust to luck that a desperate person makes a wise decision. Providing a safe refuge at fire stations is not even a solution that involves expenditure of much money.
All it really needs is a humane decision to implement a life saving answer to a twenty-first century problem !
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