Abandoning mothers are portrayed as immoral criminals and murderers or suffering from severe mental disorders.
Child abandonment is increasingly being associated with postpartum depression and post-traumatic stress.
No statistics are currently available from government, however, the reporting of child abandonment gives us some indication of the typical age of the children and places where they are found:
No statistics are currently available from government, however, the reporting of child abandonment gives us some indication of the typical age of the children and places where they are found:
65% were new-born babies, and more than 90% were younger than a year.
Of the more than 250 references to ‘sites of abandonment’, 70% would be deemed unsafe for the child (noted in descending order of frequency):
‘toilets, drains, sewers and gutters’ (20%)
‘rubbish sites, dustbins and landfills’
‘the park or open veld’
‘baby safes’ (considered safe)
‘hospitals’ (considered safe)
The remainder included: on the street; in a township; on a door step; with a relative; with a stranger; in a river or dam; in a church or synagogue; buried; on or near train tracks; in a taxi rank; at a school; and at a crèche.
Only one article mentioned the abandonment of a child in the ‘suburbs’, however, a number of articles claimed that mothers chose to travel to informal township environments to abandon their children.
