stevesboo23
12-01-2004, 08:00 AM
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=924a544e-ff49-424f-9f55-1a4abde0253a&page=1
VANCOUVER - Police have begun the laborious task of checking records of all babies born in Lower Mainland hospitals last week after failing to find the mother of a newborn girl left in a bag at a bus stop in Vancouver last Saturday.
The baby is doing well and is in stable condition at B.C. Children's Hospital although she is still on a ventilator because of some breathing difficulties, Det.-Const. Ivan De Silva of the Vancouver police department said Tuesday.
The baby, believed to be of Asian or native descent, was two or three days old when she was found at a bus stop in the 3000-block of West King Edward when a woman noticed something moving in a bag.
Police now know the baby was delivered either at a hospital or by a midwife as she was very clean, well-hydrated and, judging by the way the umbilical cord was severed, professionally cared for, De Silva said.
He said that following publicity about the case, numerous tips, including some from those who knew of women who gave birth recently, have come in and are being processed.
The hospital record search, though, will be a major job, he said.
Between 20 and 25 babies a day are born at the Children's and Women's Health Centre in Vancouver and another 36 a day at hospitals in the Fraser Health Authority region.
"There are also privacy issues we have to deal with to get access to medical records," De Silva said.
The woman who found the baby is relatively new to Canada and was unsure what to do with the child, VPD spokeswoman Const. Anne Drennan said Tuesday.
The woman held the baby for several hours, to keep it warm, before contacting the police.
Drennan urged the mother to come forward, saying while police cannot guarantee there will no charges against her, "the intention is not to come down too hard."
The baby is now a ward of the Children and Family Development Ministry.
"I'm hoping for the mom to come forward," said Linda Reid, minister of state for early childhood development.
If she doesn't, Reid said, the baby will be placed in foster care and then put up for adoption. "There are countless British Columbians looking for babies today."
The minister urged mothers who may find themselves faced with the dilemma of giving up their children to think of their safety first. "A hospital is always a useful place for someone who isn't able to care for a child," she said.
She said there are various support groups for new mothers, including social workers, community organizations and pregnancy outreach programs.
Dr. Diana Carter, a psychiatrist with the Reproductive Mental Health Program at Children's and Women's Hospital, said while many depressed women decide during the last part of their pregnancy or soon after giving birth that they don't want to keep the child, "it's a huge leap having those thoughts and actually abandoning their babies."
It's possible those who do have some psychological illness, she said.
"There are several scenarios. One is that she is very depressed and really feels she will not be a good mother and that the child may be better off being raised by someone else.
"Or, if it's a very young mom in her teens, there could be denial during the pregnancy and part of this whole denying is abandoning her baby." However, the latter usually happens at birth, not a few days later, she said.
Carter said she's dealt with cases where women didn't want to keep their children and instead gave them up for adoption.
So has Cathy Loptson, administrator of adoptions for Family Services of Greater Vancouver, a non-profit organization that provides social service programs for families.
"We have a number of birth parents who have come to our agency, but not every woman who is pregnant and comes in decides to make an adoption plan," she said, explaining that parents are provided with various options, like having family members look after their babies or having a family they know to adopt them. Some leave having decided to remain parents, Loptson said.
"Birth parents come from all walks of life, and range from teens to women in their 30s and 40s. There's no stereotypical person and stereotypical reason [for wanting to give up a child]," she said.
Loptson was concerned, however, that women aren't being given information they can use on what support structures are available.
"It's very disturbing to see women using these kinds of measures to either conceal a pregnancy or abandon a child because they may feel they don't have any support or someone to talk to about what's going on in their lives.
"If they take such drastic measures, there's a lot more going on for them -- a lot of issues that we don't know about."
Loptson said women who are experiencing difficulty with parenting and who cannot cope with older children, could approach the Children and Family Development Ministry or, in the case of newborn babies, adoption agencies.
"In these cases, birth parents are planning for the child," she said.
For Janet Keall, the mystery of Vancouver's abandoned baby triggers strong emotions. She was abandoned 27 years ago and has spent the past eight years trying to find her biological parents.
"I feel bad for the baby, of course, and for the mother that has done that. I don't consider a bus stop a safe place to leave the baby," she said in an interview Tuesday.
It's difficult to accept being abandoned, said the mother of two young children, and while she's never met her mother, she's not angry with her. "I can sort of understand she must have been going through something."
ADOPTED BABY BOOM:
The number of children adopted in B.C., 2000 to present:
2000/01 155
2001/02 242
2002/03 345
2003/04 331
*2004/05 156
* Up until Nov. 23, 2004.
The provincial government's fiscal year ends on March 31
Source: The B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development
Ran with fact box "Adopted Baby Boom", which has been appended to the end of the story.
VANCOUVER - Police have begun the laborious task of checking records of all babies born in Lower Mainland hospitals last week after failing to find the mother of a newborn girl left in a bag at a bus stop in Vancouver last Saturday.
The baby is doing well and is in stable condition at B.C. Children's Hospital although she is still on a ventilator because of some breathing difficulties, Det.-Const. Ivan De Silva of the Vancouver police department said Tuesday.
The baby, believed to be of Asian or native descent, was two or three days old when she was found at a bus stop in the 3000-block of West King Edward when a woman noticed something moving in a bag.
Police now know the baby was delivered either at a hospital or by a midwife as she was very clean, well-hydrated and, judging by the way the umbilical cord was severed, professionally cared for, De Silva said.
He said that following publicity about the case, numerous tips, including some from those who knew of women who gave birth recently, have come in and are being processed.
The hospital record search, though, will be a major job, he said.
Between 20 and 25 babies a day are born at the Children's and Women's Health Centre in Vancouver and another 36 a day at hospitals in the Fraser Health Authority region.
"There are also privacy issues we have to deal with to get access to medical records," De Silva said.
The woman who found the baby is relatively new to Canada and was unsure what to do with the child, VPD spokeswoman Const. Anne Drennan said Tuesday.
The woman held the baby for several hours, to keep it warm, before contacting the police.
Drennan urged the mother to come forward, saying while police cannot guarantee there will no charges against her, "the intention is not to come down too hard."
The baby is now a ward of the Children and Family Development Ministry.
"I'm hoping for the mom to come forward," said Linda Reid, minister of state for early childhood development.
If she doesn't, Reid said, the baby will be placed in foster care and then put up for adoption. "There are countless British Columbians looking for babies today."
The minister urged mothers who may find themselves faced with the dilemma of giving up their children to think of their safety first. "A hospital is always a useful place for someone who isn't able to care for a child," she said.
She said there are various support groups for new mothers, including social workers, community organizations and pregnancy outreach programs.
Dr. Diana Carter, a psychiatrist with the Reproductive Mental Health Program at Children's and Women's Hospital, said while many depressed women decide during the last part of their pregnancy or soon after giving birth that they don't want to keep the child, "it's a huge leap having those thoughts and actually abandoning their babies."
It's possible those who do have some psychological illness, she said.
"There are several scenarios. One is that she is very depressed and really feels she will not be a good mother and that the child may be better off being raised by someone else.
"Or, if it's a very young mom in her teens, there could be denial during the pregnancy and part of this whole denying is abandoning her baby." However, the latter usually happens at birth, not a few days later, she said.
Carter said she's dealt with cases where women didn't want to keep their children and instead gave them up for adoption.
So has Cathy Loptson, administrator of adoptions for Family Services of Greater Vancouver, a non-profit organization that provides social service programs for families.
"We have a number of birth parents who have come to our agency, but not every woman who is pregnant and comes in decides to make an adoption plan," she said, explaining that parents are provided with various options, like having family members look after their babies or having a family they know to adopt them. Some leave having decided to remain parents, Loptson said.
"Birth parents come from all walks of life, and range from teens to women in their 30s and 40s. There's no stereotypical person and stereotypical reason [for wanting to give up a child]," she said.
Loptson was concerned, however, that women aren't being given information they can use on what support structures are available.
"It's very disturbing to see women using these kinds of measures to either conceal a pregnancy or abandon a child because they may feel they don't have any support or someone to talk to about what's going on in their lives.
"If they take such drastic measures, there's a lot more going on for them -- a lot of issues that we don't know about."
Loptson said women who are experiencing difficulty with parenting and who cannot cope with older children, could approach the Children and Family Development Ministry or, in the case of newborn babies, adoption agencies.
"In these cases, birth parents are planning for the child," she said.
For Janet Keall, the mystery of Vancouver's abandoned baby triggers strong emotions. She was abandoned 27 years ago and has spent the past eight years trying to find her biological parents.
"I feel bad for the baby, of course, and for the mother that has done that. I don't consider a bus stop a safe place to leave the baby," she said in an interview Tuesday.
It's difficult to accept being abandoned, said the mother of two young children, and while she's never met her mother, she's not angry with her. "I can sort of understand she must have been going through something."
ADOPTED BABY BOOM:
The number of children adopted in B.C., 2000 to present:
2000/01 155
2001/02 242
2002/03 345
2003/04 331
*2004/05 156
* Up until Nov. 23, 2004.
The provincial government's fiscal year ends on March 31
Source: The B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development
Ran with fact box "Adopted Baby Boom", which has been appended to the end of the story.