Have A Heart

The world extended its compassion and condemnation in yet another story out of China. A newborn discovered lodged in a sewage pipe. Still alive, urgently requiring rescue. A complicated rescue demanding delicacy, time and care in extracting the tiny boy from his impromptu cradle where he would surely have died if his birth mother had not alerted her landlord that something was horribly amiss.

This was a classic tale of a young woman not knowing where to turn in her dilemma as an unmarried mother. Made even more complex by the fact that China is a country with a child-bearing policy, but it is one that is directed at couples; it would not appear to be helpful to a young women with an age-old dilemma

She had attempted to abort the foetus, but was unable to find an agency to help her. The pregnancy was the result of an unfortunate and brief affair, and the man with whom she had shared that intimacy had no interest whatever in her problem. It was her problem and hers alone to solve, and she had no idea where to begin, how it would end, and the manner in which she could proceed.

So she did nothing. Made no one aware of her condition, unwilling obviously to inform her parents. Who likely lived in the countryside, while she had gone to the capital to find her own fortune in life. That fortune appears to have slipped her by, leaving her vulnerable and forlorn, with a basic elementary education, and an ill-paid service job.

It could happen anywhere in the world, in fact, it is such a mundane, classic situation of a young woman trapped by her biology, friendless and confused. The baby, the alarm given, was eventually extracted from the piece of pipe that was cut out of a rental-apartment's public restrooms. Public in the sense that the rental rooms do not come equipped with private toilets; residents use shared accommodation.

The young woman explained to police that she had attempted to deliver the baby herself, squatting over the toilet. Naive in the extreme, since such toilets have no seating appliances, they are simply holes in the floor with sewage pipes washing the human waste away to a main sewage disposal. The baby had become lodged in an L-joint, from which he was eventually rescued.

The baby's injuries were slight, a few bruises. He is a good weight and appears to be in good health. And he has been released from the hospital which had been given his initial care, and where he had been extracted from the portion of the pipe that rescue workers had transported to the hospital. The mother wanted to raise the child, she said, but had no idea how she would do that.

The baby is now in the custody of its maternal grandparents. It is clear enough there was no intention on the part of the young woman to flush her baby away, to abandon it to death. Squat toilets offer no support whatever; the user simply squats. Impossible single-handedly to squat and then successfully grasp the emerging baby, particularly for someone in that condition.

Evidence that she clumsily tried to prepare for the baby was found in her rented room, where police discovered baby toys. And a bloodied mess. It obviously occurred to the young woman that she might keep evidence of her delivery to a minimum, squatting over the toilet, but the baby slipped from her grasp, likely leaving her horrified, since she went directly for assistance.

It was discovered as well that she was in need of medical help, since her physical condition had been compromised through the unassisted delivery. A conjunction of circumstances. It happens.