01.31.08
Rights and responsibilities
A story in the news today has troubled me greatly. This was about an 18 year old girl, obviously troubled apparently having had a difficult childhood and having taken drugs and run away from home in the past (so we are told) who has in the last couple of days given birth to a baby. Decisions were taken (without the girl’s knowledge) to remove the baby from her care at birth, but without any kind of court order within hours of the baby’s birth. Once this had happened, the family consulted lawyers and a high court ordered the baby returned to her mother. Sadly this may prove temporary as social services are applying to remove the child once more.I take issues of child protection extremely seriously. I know that social services and us as health professionals have to tread a fine line between supporting a family and protecting the child. There have been more than enough high profile mistakes. However (and of course we don’t know the full details) this strikes me as wrong. What kind of world do we live in where a young woman can give birth and not be allowed to spend even one night (even supervised) with her baby. What kind of world do we live in where a young mother cannot be supported to attempt to bond with her baby and turn her life around? What kind of world do we live in where we want to continue the cycle of difficult childhoods by separating mothers and babies without any effort, without consultation and in our ivory towers.
Maybe there is more to this, maybe I don’t know the facts. But the thought of losing my baby before I had spent even a few hours with him is beyond my comprehension.
