BABY DUMPING Introduction : CHILD is a priceless gift from God.

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 "