What are the options?

1. Give birth and raise the child.
2. Give birth and permanently give your child to another person or family.
3. Take medication or have a medical procedure that ends the pregnancy within 12 weeks of conception.

Dumping or abandoning a baby is not an option. It is a crime. And it could lead to a charge of attempted murder or, if the baby dies, a charge of murder.

Most abandoned babies are discovered dead or die soon afterwards. Even so, thousands of South African babies are dumped in pit latrines, fields and rubbish bins every year.

Overwhelming poverty, AIDS, violence and rape, lack of family support and lack of information about options lead mothers to abandon their babies.

When economies turn down, the number of babies that are abandoned increases the world over – not just in South Africa.

Many desperate mothers may well act differently if they are aware of alternatives.

There is a fourth option: leaving the baby in a safe place, without anyone knowing who you are. It is known as safe, anonymous relinquishment.

This option has no legal backing in South Africa, yet more and more compassionate organisations are offering it because it saves lives.

Safe relinquishment makes it possible for a mother to leave her baby in a designated safe space at any time of the day or night.

Such safe havens for babies are called by many names: Baby Bin, Baby Box, Baby Hatch, Baby Safe, Baby Saver or Moses Basket.

It is usually a box with a door on both sides, built into a wall.

The mother opens the door on the street side, places the baby on the soft inside of the box, closes the door and walks away without anyone ever knowing who she is. There are no cameras and no one will try to trace her, afterwards.

The weight of the baby on the little mattress inside the box will trigger a silent alarm, notifying first responders of the arrival of a baby. They will open the box from their side of the wall and take the baby to safety within minutes of its arrival. The baby will be cared for and transferred to a child protection agency that will register the birth and place the child in a home for children, a foster home or with an adoptive family. 

Lessons from history and other countries

The first case of ‘safe abandonment’ is documented in the Bible. After the Egyptian Pharaoh had ordered all Israelite first-born male babies to be killed, Jochebed looked for a way to save her newborn son. She made a waterproof basket of reeds and left him in it, floating on the Nile River. The Pharaoh’s daughter discovered the baby and guessed he was an Israelite, which meant that he would certainly be killed if he was discovered. Moved with compassion, she decided to bring the baby up herself. She called him Moses. Instead of certain death, Moses grew up in a palace and eventually became the leader of his people.

A baby that is found and cared for by others is called a foundling.

Throughout history, safe spaces had been created where people (typically mothers) could anonymously bring newborn babies to be found and cared for. A foundling wheel was used in the Middle Ages and the 18th and 19th centuries – a small crib set within an opening similar to a revolving door, on the outside wall of a church, hospital or fire station. Once the mother had placed the baby inside the wheel, she would turn it so that the opening faced the inside of the building. She would then sound a bell to alert people inside that there was a baby in the wheel.

Foundling wheels in France were legalised by imperial decree in 1811, although the first known foundling home had already been in operation in Paris in 1638.

Modern baby savers began to be introduced in 1952 and have become common around the world. They are called a ‘life cradle’ in Italy, ‘the wheel’ in Sicily, ‘baby post box’ in Japan, ‘baby safety island’ in China, ‘window of life’ in Poland, and ‘baby hatch’ in Germany. The first baby saver in South Africa was known as ‘the hole in the wall’, introduced by Door of Hope Children’s Mission in July 1999, in Johannesburg.

All 50 States in the US have decriminalised the leaving of infants at designated safe places under the Baby Moses Law. Since adopting these safe-haven laws more than 4,500 infants have been surrendered between 1999 and 2021 in Texas alone.

Namibia is currently the only African country with baby saver haven laws, which were introduced in January 2019.

Several European countries have passed laws that allow anonymous births in hospitals, free of charge, with the mother allowed to leave the baby there, after giving birth. Anonymous hospital births now greatly outnumber the use of baby savers in these countries.

In Germany, relinquished babies are looked after for eight weeks during which the mother may return and claim her child without any legal repercussions. If she doesn’t, the child becomes a ward of the State. In Austria, the period for reclaiming a baby is 6 months. A surprising number of mothers return to claim their babies.

Makes one think, doesn’t it?

Are You Thinking of Abandoning Your Baby?

Please don’t! There are people and organisations out there that will help you.

Call 0800 864 658 and talk with someone about adoption as an option. They will help you. (It is free and you don’t have to say who you are)

Or visit www.adoption.org.za for more information.

You may feel immediate relief for getting rid of your ‘problem’, but dumping the life you carried in your body for nine months will haunt you for the rest of your days – even if that life was the result of rape. Make another plan before the baby is born.

– Mampe Pekosela