To think this is so sad

[Charlie97]

Newborn baby found in a park last night, my heart breaks for both mother and baby.

I know I would not wanted to give birth alone (I presume mum was alone) and without pain relief and medical help.

Baby found abandoned in freezing East Ham park

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47083204

@SaturdayNext if you had read my posts you will see that I said "I have sympathy for both but the majority of it goes to the baby" 🙄

And adoption doesn't happen over night so yes it will go into care.

Sure, she must have been desperate but there were other options that would not have caused horrendous pain and suffering to that child

What is she's psychotic or something? Hard to behave rationally when you're certain your furniture is trying to kill you.

The people who would call for a lynching in that scenario are exactly the same emotionally stunted non thinkers that think this is just some woman who decided she didn’t like the look of her baby and “threw it away”.

My heart breaks for them both, it’s impossible to know what this woman was thinking but we can be sure she’s clearly in a bad place. It goes against every instinct to abandon your newborn, so she’s clearly not in a right frame of mind or is perhaps at risk. I wondered if she left the baby near a play area because she thought more people would pass than a quieter part. Or maybe she’s very young herself and associates babies and children with play areas.
I hope the baby finds a loving home.

Why does people keep saying "young girl" you don't know who this female is?! Could be anyone. And if the mother was killed then the baby would be dead too to break the link! Fgs

The reality is that we want to think that this has to be someone who is desperate because nobody actually wants to believe that a mother would abandon her newborn out in the open where it could potentially die in minutes. And the likelihood is that it was someone who was in a bad place mentally who did this.

But the truth is that none of us actually knows that it was. And people can and do abandon their children in all sorts of circumstances. It’s not actually possible to know for certain at this stage that it was someone who was desperate.

So although it may well have been, and in that case I hope that they get any help they need, my first thought is absolutely for the baby and the fact that someone did abandon it without any thought to what could happen to it. There was absolutely no knowing that someone would find it out there or that someone would even stop if they heard it cry. In fact there was no knowing how long it would be conscious enough to cry, for instance.

It’s possible to have the majority of sympathy for the baby while hoping the mother was desperate rather than that this was the act of someone malicious, but the two are not mutually exclusive.

I wondered if she left the baby near a play area because she thought more people would pass than a quieter part. Or maybe she’s very young herself and associates babies and children with play areas.

Yes I suppose there could have been a “playparks have children and mothers so someone’s caring will find her” logic.

And the reality is that if they had enough thought process to think that they wanted to leave the baby somewhere quiet so they couldn’t be identified then they had enough thought process to know that in sub zero temperatures a baby left abandoned in a bag wrapped in just a towel would likely die in minutes if not found. And in last night’s temperatures there was no guarantee that baby would be found as many people simply wouldn’t have been outside who generally would be.

@SummerGems 👌🏼 agree

Given where she was left, the fact she was crying and the fact she is fine I reckon she wasn’t there long at all. I’d place money on the idea that whoever left her waited until they saw someone coming before leaving her. And probably watched from a distance to make sure she was found.

@ILoveMaxiBondi exactly what I've said in previous post.

And what if no-one had come? How long would they have left the baby then? That argument just simply doesn’t hold up because if you can abandon a baby and wait for someone to find it then you can find someone to take it.

Perhaps the mother is a rape or incest victim. Perhaps she's had to hide the pregnancy from her family or she'd be in major trouble with them. Perhaps she's trafficked or very young. Perhaps somebody has made her do this.

We can't judge because we don't know and some people are leading really terrible lives and have to do horrible things in order to survive.

Is that to me summergems? How do you expect me to answer those questions? You’re asking me to be inside the mind of someone I don’t know at a time we can almost guarantee they were under a lot of stress. I’m just guessing that’s what happens. I think that was obvious.

And what if no-one had come? How long would they have left the baby then? That argument just simply doesn’t hold up because if you can abandon a baby and wait for someone to find it then you can find someone to take it.

But we don't know if they were looking on, we don't know if they saw the approaching woman and that's why they left the baby at that point?

And they didn’t throw it away hmm they left it to be found and taken care of. Complete opposite of throwing it away!

Well that's not true. The complete opposite of throwing it away is keeping it. I agree that leaving it to be found is not throwing it away, but it's not the complete opposite of throwing it away.

JacquesHammer How is it not? When a child is starved to death by its parents, that's deemed as murder. How is leaving a tiny baby, not even properly dressed, in a park, in snowy conditions, not akin to murder? Even if we said murder by sheer neglect.

Would the baby have survived the night if not found? Probably not.

I honestly can't fathom how you can even try to justify the actions of the person that dumped this poor, innocent baby.

We can't judge because we don't know

We can’t judge because we don’t know the circumstances. But we can judge once we know the particulars of the case.

Disagree craft. People who have their babies adopted are not closer to “throwing them away” than people who raise their children themselves. This appears to be an attempt to have the child found and cared for. Albeit not the preferred adoption process.

If I wanted to harm my baby, to get it out of my life with no sign it had ever been there, I wouldn't put it next to a bench in a park.

I'm not going to list all the different ways that would have worked better, for obvious reasons.

Whoever left the child there was trying to do their best, and the baby's mother needs medical attention and social support.

If I wanted to harm my baby, to get it out of my life with no sign it had ever been there, I wouldn't put it next to a bench in a park.

^^this

It is a sad situation all round, no-one knows what the mother was going through and how scared/unwell she must be.

Might be, not must be. As others have said, we just don't know. She may be 35 and wealthy, and has dumped her newborn baby because she is booked to go on a Caribbean cruise and the person due to look after her newborn has let her down.

How is it not? When a child is starved to death by its parents, that's deemed as murder. How is leaving a tiny baby, not even properly dressed, in a park, in snowy conditions, not akin to murder?

Because to gain a conviction for murder you have to have proof beyond reasonable doubt that one person intended to kill another.

At this moment in time, there is no way of knowing what the mother intended so to say it is attempted murder or manslaughter isn't factual at this point. Or indeed may never be factual.

Might be, not must be. As others have said, we just don't know. She may be 35 and wealthy, and has dumped her newborn baby because she is booked to go on a Caribbean cruise and the person due to look after her newborn has let her down.

Some people are not worth even trying to have a reasonable discussion with .... FFS!

Disagree craft. People who have their babies adopted are not closer to “throwing them away” than people who raise their children themselves.

The opposite of throwing something away is keeping it. You can do many things in between, but they are not the opposite of throwing it away.