Baby dumping increases under lockdown hardships

Child abandonment has increased by at least 80% during the lockdown as more expectant mothers experience financial uncertainty during the pandemic.

According to the National Adoption Coalition of SA (Nacsa), the first week of the lockdown saw a surge in abandonment.

This included hard abandonment, where a child is dumped in a bin, and soft abandonment, where the mother leaves the baby at a hospital after birth and disappears without a trace.

“We have seen an 80% increase. There were 13 abandonments in the period of February/March and 23 in the period of April/May. We expect this to continue,” said Nacsa vice-chair Sue Krawitz.

These figures were, however, based on a quick survey completed by various orphanages and adoption homes across the country as consolidated figures have not been recorded, said Krawitz.

However, according to social development spokesperson Lumka Oliphant, the department had no record of an increase in child abandonment cases.

“During the lockdown period from March 2020 until April 2020, there are nine cases of abandoned children as reported by provinces,” Oliphant said. “The cases are receiving the necessary intervention. There are no reports from NGO sectors.”

But according to statistics put together by Door of Hope, which looked at child abandonment across 16 homes in the country, at least 62 children were taken in between 23 April and 3 June.

Nearly half of them were abandoned babies, said Door of Hope operations director Nadene Grabham.

“Ten babies were found abandoned in rubbish bins and bushes. Eight out of that 10 were found dead. These are what we know of.

“The lack of income and employment during lockdown has definitely added to the number of abandonment and consented adoption,” Grabham said.

The Open Arms pregnancy centre has seen twice the number of calls from helpless expectant moms, most having the common concern of being unable to take care of their infant after birth, said one of it’s founders, Glynnis Dauth.

“It is more of a frantic outreach than anything else. We have had a lot of calls and it has risen from 20 different requests a day to about 40 to 50. The main thing is, because they are not given some type of counselling, they don’t understand the ramifications of adoption.

“We have been able to get these moms to realise that just because you don’t have clothes, it does not mean you can’t keep a baby,” she said.

These calls, however, have been coming from provinces which have the highest confirmed coronavirus cases, such as Gauteng and the Cape.

Most of the expectant mothers were single young women as the father of the child often chose to leave, Dauth said.

But, on the upside, it appeared more South Africans were looking to adopt children. Krawitz also runs Impilo Child Protection and Adoption Services in the East Rand, and has been inundated with adoption queries.

In April and May, she received 81 calls of adoption enquiries as compared to 32 calls in February and March.

“They are all not eligible but it is so encouraging.

“Maybe it is people’s way of saying they can make a difference. I think this is the positive side of this pandemic. We really expected there to be a big drop in the numbers of adoption enquiries during the lockdown,” said Krawitz.

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.