It could be a cry in response to a stinging from ‘soldier ants' or a last breathe effort.At such screeming, some well meaning members of the public could be attracted. The revelations is one, two, three, then a fourth.
Now a public discourse has ensued arising from every week stories of babies being abandoned on the streets, refused heaps and drainage channels that has inundated the airwaves and pages of newspapers. The babies are often between one day and two weeks.
A self examination of what had gone wrong in the social interactive network among the people in the urban areas to cause this growing incidence of abandoned babies is been investigated. But the disconnect among family members, neighbours and a breakdown of the value system in the society has been attributed to this incidence.
But it is manifest that the economic hardship that is been experienced by the people is compelling them to reject the responsibility that comes with fending for the delivered babies.Increasingly,one square meal is difficult to find on the table for most people.
The jobs are not there,micro-businesses hardly strives because the incentives are near non-available or the information on how to access them is not known to the larger number of the population. A mother who can not feed herself can not feed a dependant.
However, experts said that other factors contributes to this phenomena.The Assistant Director of the Family Support Health Centre, Elelenwo,in Rivers State,Mrs Ngozi Nwoke said when pregnant women come to the centre,health,social and economic history is obtained and kept but the service provided does not extend beyond the centre which makes it difficult to know what they do later.
She also connected the act to promiscous lifestyle of women and teenage girl who may have been raped. This brings with it a social stigma or a hindrance to the business gains that comes with the promiscous living. The cases are common among teenage girl suggesting that parents are not paying adequate attention on their children.
While are capable to make a woman discard her baby, A sociologist, Dr. Steve Wordu, with the university of Port Harcourt said most women come experince mental condition at labour to make them discard their babies. An action they regret later but could not find the babies when they come back for them because they would have been picked up by the government or members of the public.
When a woman is not sure of the paternity of the expected child, fear that the child that is coming may not be accepted because the woman is not legally married. He also said the near absent of effective healthcare system and social workers worsen the situation. The lack of watchfulness in the neighbourhood,poor health campaigns,congestions in the cities,low knowledge on how to enforvce health rights and obligations make the challenge enormous.
A psychologist, Dr. Glory Amadi sees anxiety.low self concept,aggressive lifestyle and psycho-social influences on people force them into the act. He said if the situation is allowed to continued, there will be increased fear among people especially knowing that they could wake up the next morning to find a baby in the gutter,backyard or roadside near the neighbourhood.
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