Abandoned baby in London

[user123455]

I've just seen this in the news, it's probably my post natal hormones but I can't help but feel so so sad for him I've even cried! The poor thing has no one to love or cuddle him when he cries or talk to him or hold him when he's awake.

Does anyone know what will happen to him if the mother isn't found? Are the nurses even allowed to cuddle him if he cries?

I love the bit 'healthy bonny lad'. I wonder whether the Detective is Scottish? Or Northern Irish?

No, we don't have a surrender system in the UK. Some European countries have, but we don't.

I read an article about this baby earlier, and wondered if you all had safe haven laws. All 50 states have some form of safe haven law. He appears to have been well cared for. I hope his mother gets the help she needs.

While it’s very sad, there are babies the same age as him across the country who are in much worse situations.

It sounds like he was well cared for, and left somewhere where he’d be found very quickly. Sounds like his mum did a good job of making sure of that.

Poor woman, I can’t even imagine what her life must be like, but I hope she can get some support.

That is a lovely police statement.

I hope his mum is okay, she won’t be doing well mentally but if she gave birth alone she could be doing very poorly physically.

On the same day this baby was found another baby in Portsmouth was found dead unfortunately. I hope the mums of both babies are found so they can get the support they need. I imagine they both must be in a very dark place at the moment

My sadness is reserved for the abandoned newborn found dead on the same day. Such a tragedy .

I don't blame you, OP, I can hardly bear to read this sort of thing now, though I used to be quite stoic before DS came along!

Poor little thing. Hugs for him and for you!

This made me really sad (made worse by pregnancy hormones) but I felt really sad for the mum too as I can’t imagine how desperate you must be to do that.
The baby will be looked after by some very nurturing foster carers: often foster carers go into hospital to cuddle and look after babies if there aren’t parents to do it as nurses are very busy and it starts the bonding

I really hope that she is found both for her sake and his. Circumstances may dictate that now is not the right time to become a parent. I was close to someone who was a foundling and it did have a profound impact on him, certainly as a late teen early 20s.

And the poor baby who died in Portsmouth. We don’t know anything of that baby’s mother either.

i really hope they find both mothers. they must need medical treatment.

" do you have free surrender laws there? Where I live, a mother can take a newborn to a fire station, police, hospital, etc, basically anyplace official and safe and turn over the baby to the state without consequence. It’s to keep babies from being left in circumstances like this where they might be at risk from the elements before being found."

Sadly we do not - this is probably one of the reasons so many "edward"s don't have a happy outcome.

So sad. Poor woman, I hope she’s safe. I can’t imagine feeling like this is your only option.

The police statement was lovely.

I’m sure baby Edward won’t be short of cuddles after his traumatic start.

The poor thing has no one to love or cuddle him when he cries or talk to him or hold him when he's awake.

Well they won't stick him in a box in a corner and ignore him. People really aren't that heartless.

I can't say I feel overly sympathetic towards the mothers. There really is no reason to abandon babies in the street in the middle of winter. Plenty of better ways to go about it.
When animals are abandoned in the street, people are outraged and furious that a person could be so cruel.

Was debating whether to post or not but I thought it might make some people feel a little less sad.

I was a baby like this.

I had wondered for years what my first few weeks were like and shed a tear at various points in my life thinking how alone baby me was.

So I posted about it on a thread here on MN.

I had multiple private messages from nurses, doctors and police officers. All of them said I would have been the most cuddled baby in the hospital. I burst with just relief which probably sounds totally stupid from the outside.

One nurse who messaged me said that a couple of local bobbies who had found a baby outside a hospital, similar to my situation, had both popped in every day when they finished their shift and checked in on the baby and cuddled him until he went to foster care. One of them stayed in touch with him even though he's in his teens now.

So although it's always a sad situation and must have been an unbearably awful time for little ones mother to go through such a scary thing alone, please do know that babies like me were given lots of kisses and cuddles after being found.

Lovely to hear how everyone is touched by these stories. Restores my faith in people being fundamentally good

@Thestrangestthing you're assuming the mother was the one who abandoned the baby. Which is indeed possible, but there are other explanations. A pimp or a slave handler disposing of an inconvenience. An abuser getting rid of a baby he doesn't want to provide for. In the cases of rape within a family, removing the evidence.

This was clearly a non-hospital birth (otherwise they could use records to trace the parents) and the mother will need medical treatment, if she's still alive.

No-one in a normal, happy situation wakes up one day and thinks "you know what, I'm going to go through this whole pregnancy and birth with zero medical intervention and then I'm going to leave my baby on the street".

Oh Yasss. Thank you so much for your post. I am so glad that you had those messages from your thread. I hope things are good for you.

YasssKween I’m sure you were cared for by the people around you xxxx

Thanks for both those lovely posts.

Very rough start but eventually I turned into a gobby little madam with a normal batshit but my kind of batshit forever family around me so feel very lucky in the grand scheme.

Wish I could say thank you to the people who stepped up when I was baby A in the hospital and let them know I'm ok!

So if anyone reading this has ever done that, cheers on behalf of rescues gobshites like me

Oh Yasss, l'm sure you were still an adorable little gobshite! I wonder if you could trace your story to those who found you and police/hospital staff or would it be too much emotionally?

@TitianaTitsling haha I think I was a character, suspicious little face and a whole head of hair.

Yep I have done a bit of research into my own story, glad I waited until I was grown up. I have nothing but gratitude that someone went through something so unbelievably difficult (which it can be even in the best of circumstances) as childbirth alone, made sure I was somewhere they believed I would be safe and cared for, then left without getting help for herself.

In the state of mind she must have been in, it was a truly and purely loving thing to do. I know that's hard for some people to understand but I believe it to my core.

My mum has always said "I am your mummy mummy, but you were lucky because you also had a tummy mummy". Still makes me tear up thinking how lovely of my mum to include her with no anger on my behalf.

Anyway I'm rambling and while everyone has their own opinion, nobody would do that after giving birth unless they felt there was absolutely no other option available that they could live with.

She gave me a chance, that's more than some little ones get

Suspicious looking as in I looked suspicious of people aka judgy and contemplative right from day dot.

Not suspicious as in I looked shifty ha. Though I do always get stopped at airport security...