There’s nothing more tragic than stories of desperate mothers
killing or abandoning unwanted newborns rather than facing
disapproving family or friends with news of a pregnancy.
There’s nothing more tragic than stories of desperate mothers killing or abandoning unwanted newborns rather than facing disapproving family or friends with news of a pregnancy. Given that California’s Safely Surrendered Baby Law has allowed mothers to surrender newborns at hospitals, no questions asked, since 2001 it’s an unnecessary tragedy. Mothers who surrender their babies at a “Safe Haven” have a two-week cooling-off period in which they can reclaim their babies and retain their anonymity. It’s a good law that ought to be saving lives.
Unfortunately, despite the presence of these Safe Havens, there was still a heartbreaking string of these tragedies in north Santa Clara County this summer. Two babies were found dead and another abandoned but alive in recent weeks. Hazel Hawkins Hospital is a designated Safe Haven, but local officials say, so far, there have been no babies dropped off. Police Chief Jeff Miller and others also say there have been no instances of a baby being abandoned in San Benito County.
Still, hospital officials say educating the public about the Surrendered Baby Law is a challenge. Frequently, these mothers have had no prenatal care and give birth outside of a hospital or other medical facility. Some are the victims of sexual abuse or rape. Others are trying to hide their pregnancy from their family.
Hazel Hawkins posts signs in both English and Spanish in its lobby and in the emergency room explaining the law and procedures around the safe surrender. But if mothers don’t seek prenatal care at the hospital, there is little chance the information will get out.
Marian Anderson, director of the emergency department at Hazel Hawkins, said difficulty getting the message out is compounded by the fact there is no profile of women who are likely to abandon their babies.
“It crosses all age groups, and there’s no certain ethnicity or education level – there’s no rhyme or reason to it,” she said. “So it’s hard to know how you market this.”
That challenge presents an opportunity to start an education campaign in hopes of averting a local tragedy. Our neighbor to the north has set an example we can follow.
Santa Clara County Supervisors added 17 county fire stations to the list of places where a desperate new mother can leave her newborn child. But Santa Clara County has taken another, perhaps more significant, step. It has established a Safe Haven task force charged with educating the public about the newborn surrender law.
The task force is made up of a wide range of professionals – from medical to emergency services, from social services to education and beyond – who must find a way to tell those who need to know how to safely and anonymously surrender a newborn.
That is an admirable goal and one leaders in San Benito County should follow. If we take the next step, adapting the organization and goals of the Santa Clara task force to local needs, there is the possibility we can avoid a tragedy altogether.
Success will mean unwanted babies get a real chance at life; it means that adoptive parents who long for a baby will have that dream fulfilled; and it means mothers in desperate circumstances won’t have to live with the crushing guilt of abandoning or killing their own newborn child.
We need to let mothers know, in the words of Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss, that being unable to meet the challenge of caring for a newborn infant is not a crime, but harming their newborns or abandoning them is. They need to know there is an alternative.
As a community, it behooves us to do our absolute best to get the word out about the Safely Surrendered Baby Law.
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