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More and more regions have relaxed their family planning policies and are allowing some couples to have more offspring
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Cover Stories Series 2014> Relaxation of Family Planning Policy> Archive
UPDATED: August 12, 2013 NO. 33 AUGUST 15, 2013
A Cry for Help
Rescue of newborn trapped in sewer becomes clarion call for unwed mothers
By Yu Yan
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(CFP)

On the afternoon of May 25, the muffled cries of an infant echoed from the sewage drain of a public toilet on the fourth floor of a residential building in Pujiang County, east China's Zhejiang Province. Police officers and firefighters jointly extracted the 2.3-kg newborn covered in sores and swiftly sent him to a local hospital. But how did he end up in the sewer? Who would abandon a baby boy in a toilet? Police identified the baby's mother as a 22-year-old woman with the pseudonym Xiaofei who lived in a nearby apartment, but she was initially reluctant to admit the boy was hers.

She was an unwed mother.

Having a baby out of wedlock remains a major social taboo in China and a source of shame for the birth mother's family. It also raises a host of legal complications that bring undue stress to single mothers.

Xiaofei met the baby's father through a friend last year, and after a short relationship, they broke up. Finding herself pregnant, she contacted the father, but he denied responsibility. She was all alone.

The day of the incident, Xiaofei reportedly felt pain and went to the toilet. Unexpectedly, the baby was born and slipped into the sewer. She ran to her landlady for help. And the landlady called the police.

Many people called the hospital, police and fire department offering milk powder to the baby or expressing wishes to adopt the baby. But when it came to who should take the responsibility for the baby's injury, arguments broke out.

"The mother might be charged with child abandonment or child abuse," said Cheng Xuelin, a lawyer with the Guosheng Law Firm in Zhejiang. "But judging from her statement, she tried to save the baby. She didn't abandon the baby on purpose."

Many people defended the young mother. They held that premarital pregnancy was not the sole responsibility of the woman. The man should also be in the picture.

The incident revealed some young people, especially those who left their rural hometown to work in cities, lacked knowledge of human sexuality and a sense of sexual responsibility, said Zhong Qi, an expert with the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences.

The incident was eventually defined as an accident by investigators. Both parents of the mother and the father expressed their willingness to raise the baby, and the baby was taken home.

Difficult struggles

Qiao Min, an electronics saleswoman in Beijing, gave birth to her son Feifei on August 1, 2007. She too was unwed. Qiao met Feifei's father in 2004 when she came to Beijing from southwest China's Guizhou Province. After a three-year relationship, the two broke up.

Months later, she discovered she was pregnant, and sought out the father. To her despair, he was already married to another woman, who was also expecting their child.

Qiao considered abortion, but her doctor diagnosed her with a retroverted uterus and said she might not have another opportunity to be a mother. She kept the baby.

After she gave birth, she was all alone in the hospital, with neither parents nor husband around her. The feeling of solitude made her burst into tears, and she kept the newborn a secret from her parents for a year and a half.

Various surveys reveal that the number of unwed mothers in China is rising, and the mothers are getting younger. Most of them find it financially difficult to raise a child alone.

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