A baby was abandoned in a clump of bushes near a canal in Mahaicony this week. Left with the part of the placenta still attached perhaps his mother even in her desperation thought the baby would be nourished by the womb’s source until he was found. She left him wrapped in gift paper where the divine ones like the spirits of our ancestors perhaps protected him until he was found. These gifts of children to Guyana are born uncorrupted, filled with hope and promise and should be protected and cherished.
The baby was found on Monday, but residents believe that he was abandoned on Sunday as they heard cries which they believed were the barks of a dog. Puzzling how the cries of a newborn baby would be mistaken for a barking dog. But we often let the noise of the world drown the cries of our children when they are abused and neglected. Rain wet the baby until his cries could no longer be ignored by curious farmers who were working in the area. The fact that the baby was found alive, unharmed, and healthy, perhaps is evidence that the unseen ones did watch over him.
At just seventeen years old, we can only imagine the anguish his mother experienced. The circumstances are unknown about how her baby boy was conceived and born, but we can assume that those circumstances were not ideal since she felt desperate enough to abandon him near a canal wrapped in gift paper with the partial placenta still attached. There are teenaged mothers old enough to give consent according to our laws, but too young to vote, drink or care for children. There are teenaged mothers old enough to become pregnant, but not old enough to consent. Teenaged pregnancy is a disturbing norm in Guyana.
According to a PAHO report from June 2022 “In Guyana, adolescents face challenges related to comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health, mental health, and teen pregnancies, including repeat pregnancies in teenagers and gender-based violence at the community and national levels. The high rate of teenage pregnancy representing 20-24 % of all pregnant women, is a cause for concern. There is a need for proposed innovations to tackle this issue, including the social determinants of health.”
20-24% of all pregnant women being teenagers is alarming. It is a silent crisis in a society where we often look the other way instead of tackling the crisis. The age of consent in Guyana up to the early 2000s was thirteen. At thirteen I was still playing with dolls and was not mature enough to consent to sex. It is troubling to think that it was only in 2005 that the age of consent was changed to sixteen which some believe is still too young. Still, we see those shocking stories of children younger than sixteen giving birth. The children who are the victims of Guyana’s sexual predators are often ignored or forgotten. We watch the bellies of young girls rise from trauma, neglect, the search for love, lack of knowledge about their sexual and reproductive health and we are not constantly enraged by it. Neither are we constantly enraged by the incestuous ones who are allowed to destroy the lives of children and the sexual predators who are protected by other degenerates in our society. How great is this society?
We watch teenaged girls become mothers before they have been fully mothered and fathered. Mothers long before their frontal lobes are fully developed. Our behaviours sometimes mirror that of humans emerging for the first time ignorant and figuring what is right and wrong. Since 2005, the number of underaged girls and teens 16 and older who have become pregnant is alarming. Some must mature fast and raise their children, while relatives help others; some choose to give their babies away or abandon them. Whether they are having sex with boys their own age or are being sexually abused by adults, many of Guyana’s teenaged moms did not give birth from happy circumstances.
We know there are still cultures where little girls are married before they even become teenagers. We have seen cultures where child brides are gifts to senior citizens. These sordid tales are too many. In a broken world these are symptoms of our brokenness. Norms that are not normal. So much damage to the society. So much pain and angst feeling like sometimes we are in this world to be tested and punished. In Guyana a baby in bushes near a canal in our oily Dubai dreams is a symptom of our brokenness.
Where the children should be growing and planning their futures, where motherhood requires a maturity of the mind and not just a body able to give birth, Guyana’s teenaged mothers are too many. Where the law is often lax, but we are grateful when we see those who take advantage of children being prosecuted, the number of convictions is still not enough. But it is the silence that contributes to our children’s suffering. The silence of mothers who turn the other way. The absent fathers in many instances, lack of guidance and desperation for a better life.
Many of the teenaged girls who become pregnant in Guyana live in poverty. While many can recover and have a career and contribute positively to society, there are others whose lights are forever dimmed. Those who continue to create unplanned children they cannot adequately care for, sometimes with multiple fathers some who leave them to raise children on their own. There are too many single mothers in Guyana who must stand alone as the heroes for their children because the boys who fathered their children are just parading as men. There are motherless and fatherless children who contribute to the detriment of society when they are shunned. Still there are many motherless and fatherless children who beat the odds and become worthy members of our society.
Let us love our children. Let us stop the abuse of children whether it be verbal, psychological or the rod many swear by. Let us be their first teachers of sexual and reproductive health based on facts and not myths. Let us create an environment where our children feel comfortable and free to talk to us about anything. Let us encourage them to be sexually responsible when they become sexually active at an appropriate age.
The mother of the abandoned baby turned herself into the police. She is receiving medical care along with her child. May she find strength and peace and may her baby grow to be a worthy member of society.
