It is unfathomable to us how a mother could give birth to a baby and then just abandon it. I can’t even imagine giving up my own baby.
Of course, there are many reasons why a mother might do something like this. Perhaps she is fearful of what her family will do or the stigma that will be attached. Maybe she is mentally ill and unable to care for the child.
We might never know why this mother chose to do what she did, but thankfully for her little girl, this story has a happy ending.
A man was walking to work in Chelyabinsk in central Russia when he decided to take a shortcut. He was walking through the woodlands on the outskirts of the city when he heard a strange noise coming from somewhere nearby.
Curious, he went to investigate, and what he found left him sick.
Lying on a pile of leaves, covered in ants, was a tiny three-day-old baby. Her umbilical cord was still attached and her skin was red and swollen from where the ants had bitten her.
The man quickly scooped the baby up and called for an ambulance. Police later said that if he hadn’t found the little girl when he did, she probably would not have survived.
“The person that found the baby girl heard her crying and on investigating discovered the child lying on a pile of leaves and covered in ants,” said a police spokesman. “It was clear that the child had been abandoned and there was no one else in sight, so they picked her up and called for an ambulance.”
While the baby was in rough condition, doctors were able to stabilize her and she was expected to make a full recovery.
Unfortunately, baby abandonment is all too common in Russia. Russia has over 650,000 children who are registered orphans, many of whom are considered “social orphans” because one or both of their biological parents are still alive.
Many pro-lifers in the country have worked hard to promote baby boxes, or baby “hatches,” where women can leave their babies without repercussions if they feel they cannot care for them.
Hopefully this idea will catch on so mothers know they have a safe place to leave their babies and we don’t hear any more tragic stories like this one.
