Baby Dumping Among Teenagers.

HILD is a priceless gift from Allah SWT. However, baby dumping is a social crisis and has
a chronic increase as many cases are occurring in Malaysian society. The
baby dumping refers to discarding or leaving alone, for an extended period of time, a
child younger than 12 months of age in a public or private setting with the intent to
dispose of the child. Based on Bukit Aman Police Headquarters statistics found a total of
580 babies were found dumped between year 2000 to 2006. This number of cases
increase every year where as much as 65 baby dumping cases has increased to 83 cases
in the year 2006. In the first 5 months, almost everyday there are reports on dumped baby
cases. You read it on the front page of the newspaper or see it on the nightly news...a
newborn baby found in a back alley. This scenario had been more serious from day to
day although there are a lot about this in the mass media.
Mostly, among teenagers always seen to be involved in this situation. Teenage parents
give birth in a motel room and leave the child for dead in a dumpster. A girl gives birth in
a school bathroom at night. throws the baby into the garbage or in the toilet. These
stories relate to one of the most frightening realities of our culture today: some children
are viewed as problems to be thrown away rather than gifts to be treasured. More
recently, the tragedy of Baby Dumping has begun to be addressed by state legislatures
throughout the nation. For example, a number of states have passed laws to provide
funding, care, and services for dumped children. These legislative actions have also
established 'safe houses' - public centers such as fire stations, police stations, and other
public areas where women can bring unwanted children rather then leave them in trash
receptacles. The hope is that, by offering an alternative to dumping, women might leave
their children with people who can help the baby. Surprisingly, these cases have got a lot
of attention from the community. So, what are the best opinions and ways that should be
taken to prevent this scenario from spreading?
Child dumping is the practice of dumping offspring outside of legal adoption. The
dumped child is called a foundling or throwaway. According to a reliable statistics, one
baby is dumped every week. A figure that has trebled in the past decades. Causes
include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness.

One factor that leads to child dumping is teenage pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy is
defined as a teenage or underage girl becoming pregnant. This pregnancy of teenagers
are a mere result of the gratification of sexual urges. That pregnancy might not happen
only if studies were prioritized rather than having relationships with the opposite sex. No
premarital sex, no early pregnancy. Worst thing about this is that it is the child that will
suffer. If not aborted, they are dumped by their biological parents.
Another factor is the family break-up. Family break-ups happen after a long period of
misunderstandings, fighting and unhappiness. Sometimes they happen suddenly and it

is hard to understand why there needs to be change at all. Children are mostly affected
by this kind of situation. If both their mother and father decided to a divorce and one
cannot raise their child alone, tendency is that they will dump their child. This child will
become homeless and found himself alone.
Poverty is also another factor that causes child dumping. Persons in cultures with poor
social welfare systems who are not financially capable of taking care of a child are more
likely to dump him/her. Political conditions, such as difficulty in adoption proceedings,
may also contribute to child dumping, as can the lack of institutions, such as
orphanages, to take in children whom their parents cannot support. Societies with strong
social structures and liberal adoption laws tend to have lower rates of child dumping.
Psychologists believe that even short-term dumping can damage a childs emotional and
social development. Even short separations could have a negative effect on the childs
ability to form close relationships, said Dr Michael Boulton, a child psychologist at the
University of Keele. Babies often form attachments with their mother before birth. They
know their mothers smell and turn to them when anxious or distressed. If they suddenly
find they have gone it can be very damaging.
Dr Boulton said that mothers who dump their children normally do so under desperate
circumstances. Having ones first child is the most stressful experience someone can
go through. Young mothers can be vulnerable, especially if they are alone and do not
have the experience or social support to cope.

PREVENTION
Long-term solutions to the problem of baby dumping require efforts at prevention. Steps
must be taken to prevent unwanted pregnancies, provide assistance to parents in crisis,
and increase communication within families and communities.

Sexuality Education

Baby dumping presumably results from unwanted pregnancy. To prevent baby dumping,
it is therefore ultimately necessary to educate individuals about sexuality. We supports
age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education, and recommends that schools and
communities provide comprehensive sexuality education to all youth and families.

Responding to Unwanted Pregnancy

Individuals experiencing unwanted pregnancies must receive support and services.

Communities should examine their capacity to provide the range of supports and
services needed by individuals experiencing unwanted pregnancies. These services
must also be publicized; people cannot use services that they do not know about. Finally,
education efforts should strive to increase communication among youth, families, and
communities. Increased communication may minimize the shame and secrecy
associated with an unwanted pregnancy and make young people more likely to take
advantage of supports and services in their families and communities.

The other ways to prevent this problem are :

- focusing the prevention programs towards the regions and categories of population
with increased risks of dumping;
- setting up a coherent reporting and monitoring system as regards the dumping and the
risk of abandonment;
- hiring social workers in all sanitary units depending on the number of doctors existing
in the unit;
- hiring community medical assistants and physicians in all the communities presenting
increased risks of dumping;
- standardizing the written forms and the procedures of registering women which get
admitted in maternities in order to give birth;
- elaborating procedures for keeping records of mothers and children without identity
papers and creating a database on this matter.
" Having sex after marriage is safer and it can reduce the abortion and baby dumping
rate. It also helps us be more responsible and not to have sex just to satisfy our lust "