News of a weeks-old baby found abandoned behind a building in Halifax over the weekend is renewing a call for safe havens where mothers can leave infants without being prosecuted.
Two women who found the tiny girl Sunday told CTV Atlantic she was wearing just a diaper and onesie, with some dirty blankets nearby. She was placed into care while police canvass the area and review security camera footage in an attempt to find the mother.
Dr. Tanya Tulipan, a psychiatrist who works with new mothers at the IWK Health Centre, says women abandon children -- a criminal offence -- for all kinds of reasons.
“We know that often there are difficult life circumstances, either financial or cultural,” she says. “Often the moms can be younger, it can be their first child.”
Dr. Tulipan says the hospital provides help to struggling mothers. “We aren’t here to judge,” she adds.
Ellen Campbell, runs the charity Abuse Hurts, which deals neglect and abuse. She’s buried six abandoned babies in Ontario.
Campbell says Canada needs “safe haven” rules so that mothers who can’t cope can drop their infants at hospitals or another public buildings without fear of prosecution.
Such laws are credited with saving thousands of babies in the United States. In some states, the mother is required to show up and sign over her parental rights in the process.
Another option is the anonymous “angel’s cradle,” a small door outside the hospital emergency department with a crib and blanket inside. A minute after a baby is placed inside and the door is closed, hospital staff are alerted. That gives a distressed mother time to get away.
Right now, the angel’s cradle is only available at a handful of Canadian hospitals.
Campbell says the focus needs to be on saving the baby, not punishing the mother.
With a report from CTV Atlantic’s Kelland Sundhal and files from CTV Medical Correspondent Avis Favar
