Abandoned baby Elsa is third newborn to be deserted by same parents

[SerendipityJane]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5115e7k2eno

Britain had the foundling hospital (Coram’s) in the 18th century where children could be left. Maybe there is a need for that again.

Plus, they’ll be looking at mitochondrial dna, not heritage… The police have DNA resources that far outreach ancestry and gedmatch.

building a picture of the family trees around the relations they can identify, contacting them for information, checking if they are on any lists or police records. Coupled with the other information and evidence, cctv, items found with baby, inherited illnesses or abnormalities…. Reaching out to local clinics, hospitals or treatment centres where there are inherited illnesses (if those were found) identifying communities where they may have leads. My guess is they know the family but not which one of them.

Nigerian descent narrows nothing down really 😂

@GoogleWhacking I'd suggest, with respect, that the woman telling you she was going to abandon her baby wasn't this baby's mother. This January baby was an hour old when found. Are we really saying this woman was up, walking, phoning emergency services and dropping baby in a park within minutes of a delivery? It seems unlikely to be her, just coincidental timing.

It's actually not unusual for adopted parents to be contacted in the future and asked if they would be willing to be assessed as suitable to adopt a new full or half biological sibling.

Because those situations would not normally result in three full siblings being born and abandoned.

In an abusive situation (incest, slavery/exploitation, domestic violence) the babies are more likely to have the same father, and given there are three babies now, the mother is likely to be living in a situation of ongoing isolation or coercion by the same man, whether a male relative, a partner, a domestic 'employer', or even a pimp.

I worked in children's safeguarding a long time. I have had multiple cases where newborn babies were 'abondoned' by women who had been victims of sex trafficking. Often the males in charge of the ring would deny antenatal care to women and forcibly remove babes from mother's after birth. It happens in this country.

We are assuming consent here? I doubt it's a healthy and happy sexual relationship.
I'm guessing it's a male family member raping a female and discarding the babies. That poor woman.

Do you really think a woman who may have been illegally trafficked to the UK will have easy access to the internet and access to a bank account to order stuff online with?

This isn't a contraception debate, and yes, people who live abroad have technology and know other people. I've known several people who immigrated illegally or applied for asylum from childhood to adulthood.

This isn't even likely to be what's happening here. Just a completely normal person with free will, choosing to birth and abandon multiple babies because I can't afford birth control? That's not what's happening here.

In response to people suggesting we introduce an anonymous baby box system or god forbid a 'foundling' hospital.
In what way would this benefit or safeguard the mother/victim in this horrific situation, or offer any comfort to the poor children that have been left.

Thankfully we have some support systems in place that mean we have moved on from Victorian England and don't need to model deprived countries that offer this.
The fact this mother is able to be so under the radar and unable to access the multiple avenues of help that would have been available to her regardless of her situation, legal status or decisions is of grave concern and points to the fact she is in danger.

I am in a US state where babies up to 30 days old can be left in climate controlled, 24/7 monitored "safe haven baby boxes", located at staffed police stations, fire departments, hospitals, and emergency healthcare facilities. There are several boxes in the suburban municipality where I live as we have two hospitals here, a big police station, and multiple fire houses.

While all 50 states have safe haven laws, other places have far fewer baby boxes.

Here's what they generally look like inside:
https://lutheranfamilyservice.org/2023/10/iowas-first-safe-haven-baby-box/

And outside, for the most part:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/indiana-installs-safe-haven-baby-boxes-abandoned-newborns-n568811

It's a situation that cries out for practical remedies. Babies are completely vulnerable.

Honestly that was my thought too. I wonder if there is some poor woman being held somewhere and that’s why nobody is noticing repeatedly pregnant woman but no babies.

Sorry if this is morbid but this makes me fear how these 2 people will deal with the next baby since they can't do the leaving baby out thing anymore?

Hopefully dna will shed some light on the case. I’d also suspect a woman in an abusive situation.
I used to be involved in child protection work as a trainee and recall a case of an abusive partner insisting he delivered the child as if he didn’t deliver it it wasn’t his (it must have been terrifying for teen girl giving birth without medical care) He’d done it to a previous gf too but she was older and had had two normal deliveries before she met him.
I wonder if there’s something like a religious cult element so no contraception and wanting to father children.

@Theweepywillow It doesn't sound like a very "stable" relationship to me and she's probably being repeatedly raped not "sleeping" with him!

This worries me too - there must be a good reason for the authorities to release this information? But what will the couple do next time, if they think the net might be closing in on them?

Pardon my ignorance, I could be wrong, but isn't it because abortion was less accessible (and is now mostly illegal) in Indiana?

So sad but in a positive view, glad that they are giving the child the best possible option to succeed as they don’t believe they can offer it.

We can’t judge the individual as we don’t know their circumstances.

I'm not sure we need a whole hospital dedicated. The judge who lifted the reporting restrictions said "“The abandonment of a baby in this country is a very, very unusual event and there are years where there are no children abandoned, "
https://www.itv.com/news/2024-06-04/baby-found-in-shopping-bag-has-two-siblings-who-were-also-abandoned-court-told

I'm worried that babies might now be killed and disposed of/buried rather than abandoned, now it's been publicised that their DNA is tested and could be matched It's something that most people wouldn't have thought of.

Poor mother - goodness knows what life she's leading.

As a previous post highlighted, there are literally years on end when not a single baby is abandoned. Having a dedicated facility would be overkill, don't you think?

As you can see in the links I posted, there is information about accessing services posted on the exterior of the boxes, posted in both Spanish and English.

Yes, it would be possible to put this information anywhere, and in fact, where I live, there are posters elsewhere - in all the libraries, in the municipal offices, at the public pools and other parks and rec facilities, in all the middle and high schools, and there are also posters on buses and trains.

Occasionally there is a news report about a baby - sadly sometimes dead - found in an alley all the same, and the local news always includes the information on contacting social services if you're experiencing a crisis pregnancy, the fact that it's confidential, the law about age limits for leaving a baby in a safe box; this information is available online on multiple news websites as well as the municipal, county, and state websites, in many languages. News reports always exhort the mother to go for a fully confidential medical checkup with no danger of police involvement. From the medical checkup, social services can get involved.

Just because one woman might be unreachable, held against her will, etc, doesn't mean all babies who might be abandoned have mothers in this situation. Many abandoned babies are born to teenage girls who have hidden their pregnancies. The availability of safe places to leave a baby, with information on help that is available posted clearly, offers the mothers the choice of what to do and the reassurance that help is available whenever she is ready or able to seek it.

Even the person responsible for abandoning the latest baby might be able to do so safely if there were boxes available instead of leaving her outdoors. Three full siblings have been found, but we do not know if others have been missed and have perished.

Yes, the mothers need help. But they are a very difficult population to reach. Most of the time the police here will assume the mother is living within a five mile radius of the spot where the baby was discovered, and will conduct inquiries via schools, healthcare facilities and providers, and local organisations.

It is estimated that 4,500 babies have been left in safe haven boxes around the US since they were first installed around the millennium.

Well at least it could mean the babies are safe, even if not the mother also. One out of two is better than none at all?

@mathanxiety but in the UK where we have a free health care system, social services and free access to contraceptives and abortion , babies being abandoned is extremely rare (hence the news coverage), so it really is not an equivalent situation.
The US also has private adoption and very few restrictions on surrogacy.

My point was having a government approved system for whoever left these babies, because it's almost completely implausible due to the baby being only an hour old that it was actually the poor mother, would have benefited her in any way.

I think it's very, very unlikely that any women who goes out and about in the world even only to a limited extent could have three pregnancies with no medical attention and no-one noticing.

Extreme abuse seems the most likely situation I'm afraid.

Quite a lot of countries have "baby hatches" - there's quite a lot of info on this wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_hatch

Some countries keep the babies for a period of time in case the mother wants to come back. Whatever people may think about it, it seems very sensible to me. At the very least, it's probably better than the alternative.