Who Sees the Mother!
As we come to the end of the month we celebrate mothers, I could not, but reflect on a story that made headlines in every newspaper of the lady who allegedly dumped her twins in riverbed. Newspapers are replete with stories of headlines about babies being abandoned in a riverbed, dumped in a pit latrine, left in a plastic bag, or discovered behind a building.
Morna Ikosa As we come to the end of the month we celebrate mothers, I could not, but reflect on a story that made headlines in every newspaper of the lady who allegedly dumped her twins in riverbed. Newspapers are replete with stories of headlines about babies being abandoned in a riverbed, dumped in a pit latrine, left in a plastic bag, or discovered behind a building. Society often reacts with outrage before compassion.
Citing, “How could a mother do this?” But perhaps the more difficult question that no one bothers to ask is, What happened to that mother before she reached that moment of desperation? Baby dumping is not simply a criminal issue.
It is a social, economic, mental health, and human dignity crisis. It is a mirror reflecting how societies treat vulnerable women, especially poor women, young women, survivors of abuse, and mothers facing overwhelming emotional distress. The uncomfortable truth is that baby abandonment happens in both developing and developed countries.
