Baby found in sewer pipe in China

[MakingAnotherList]

I have just seen this on Sky News. The video showing the baby being cut free was heart breaking
What kind of person does that to a newborn? It still had the placenta attached. I'm shocked!
Sorry, can't link on phone.

Why criticise the DM on this? I think they should show these pictures to the world. China has an appalling record in human rights and we should all be reminded about that.

The DM should always be criticised. It's the law

My understanding is that she gave birth unexpectedly on the toilet and the baby slipped down because Chinese toilets do not have U-bends. So unlike a Western toilet, where you would have to deliberately bend and shove, this could easily happen.

Do we have any evidence that the mother knew the baby was alive when she flushed the toilet and that she was not acting in shock? Would it be so strange if you did go into shock under circumstances like that?

It also seems clear from later reports that when the baby did cry, showing that he was alive, she immediately alerted rescuers.

Do we have any evidence that the mother knew the baby was alive when she flushed the toilet and that she was not acting in shock? Would it be so strange if you did go into shock under circumstances like that?

Yes, it would be very strange. Do these toilets flush?

From the BBC website:

"She was unmarried and kept her pregnancy secret, police told AFP news agency.

She said she tried to catch the baby after unexpectedly giving birth, but that he slipped into the sewer. She then alerted her landlord, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The mother did not think she could afford to look after the baby, so she did not tell anyone that the baby was hers, reports Xinhua. She went to work after he had been rescued and only admitted the baby was hers when confronted by police later."

The Chinese authorities have given the baby back to the relatives and are not prosecuting. I imagine that they have decided that the case is not attempted murder because of the bad publicity a trial would cause to the country.

Lets face it, the baby was full term and it was her first. Unlikely to just slip out on the toilet. If you believe that...

I can believe it.
I've used those squat toilets when I've been abroad and new babies are very slippery.

A friend of mine shared a house with someone who gave birth on the loo, a....apparently the mother was unaware they were pregnant. From what I understand, the baby spent quite sometime with it's head down the loo, while the mother called a housemate, declaring there was a baby...housemate couldn't find baby....eventually located baby and phoned ambulance...babies head was still under water. The baby was fine, but if it had been a different style of toilet, it could have been a very different ending.

These things do happen.

Yes but after making the phone call, the mother went to work!

I have read several reports on this story, they all said the mother raised the alarm and was on the scene during the rescue, I haven't read anywhere about her going to work.

It sounds like she was in denial about the pregnancy (being young, single and concealing the pregnancy) I think it is quite likely that if she was in denial the birth could have been a huge shock, and if she didn't have and experience or knowledge she could have mistaken the pushing for a upset stomach/bowel movement and been kneeling over the toilet.
Because of the way the toilets are in China the baby could have fallen down before she knew what had happened.
It also seems likely that in the shock she would have cleaned up any blood in the communal bathroom.

But it does say that as soon as she heard the cries she raised the alarm.

So why wait to hear the cries before raising the alarm? Surely, you would think "shit, the baby has gone down the toilet" and yell for help. Would she have ignored what had happened if she didn't hear the baby cry?

I just think that this kind of event is completely related to China's attitude to having children and their dreadful culture of human rights' abuses.

She also denied the baby was hers initially... That's recorded on every news page. Why would you do that if it was an accident? Plus she only reported that she heard noises coming from the pipe? Why not say exactly what that noise was? I feel for her situation i really do but accepting it as an accident is probably much easier for the country than admit women are drove to such lengths.

The poor woman was probably in immense shock.

The teenager I mentioned earlier was initially totally in denial that the baby was anything to do with her, despite all evidence to the contrary. In fact, she was asking where it had come from, etc.

Some people genuinely do not recognise they are pregnant, and sometimes housemates don't even notice. When you go to the loo thinking you have a really dodgy tummy (yes, really - there was no, oh this hurts I think I need to see a Dr) and a baby falls out, it can be a bit of a shock. And this can happen in countries/situations where full support will be offered to a young mum with an unexpected pregnancy. Not many of us know exactly how we would react in such a situation.

The same thing- women being in denial about pregnancy- happens in this country. Women conceal pregnancies, women abandon babies.

Naturally, they are not normally the women who are in the best emotional and mental health, with the most supportive family situations. But not then all women are in good mental health with supportive families.

A British mother left her baby at a Portuguese airport earlier this year, blaming pnd. A day-old baby was left on a street bench in Edinburgh last month. A dead baby was found wrapped in plastic in a lane in Manchester in April; forensic examinations revealed that it had lived for some time after birth.

None of these incidents led to a outpouring of posts along the lines of "I would believe anything of the British".

Having had 3 DC I find it difficult to believe anyone can go full term without knowing they are pregnant, but it happens.

There was a MNetter it happened to, but I can't remember who.

It happens

Cory The difference between Britain and China is that China has a 1 child only policy and as a result the state physically forces women to have abortions when they do not want to. There are also lots of children in orphanages.

I think we all know that Openyourheart. And perhaps if the attitudes were different there then this mother would have been accessing proper health care and not been on her own in a toilet.
But the media and some people here are very quick to demonize the Chinese these days.

As I say, I can see how this could be an accident. You wouldn't even need to be squatting over the hole for it to happen.

Well, I'd say that it is quite right to demonize human rights abuses.