Science Leadership Academy

    Nobody really knows how prevalent child abandonment is because many cases go unreported. At a site called Safe Child they say that many of these cases are reported as neglect or abuse. They also state that," In 1998, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services surveyed major newspapers and found 65 reports of abandoned babies in 1991 (eight found dead) and 108 in 1998 (33 found dead). Although state laws differ, all states currently have laws against maltreatment, abuse and/or neglect of the baby (i.e. leaving a baby unsupervised and unprotected)."

    Another site I found had a account on there about a young girl. Growing Up Scared stated,"In June a child named Michaela Robinson was born addicted to cocaine, after a pregnancy in which her mother had sought no prenatal care. The addicted infant underwent withdrawal and then boarded for a period at Temple University Hospital. Social workers, meanwhile, were having difficulty making contact with the mother, and when they did, she was "very unaccommodating." The woman had been under investigation by the city's Department of Human Services since 1988, because of tips that she was caring improperly for her other three children. Nonetheless, the mother was persuaded to take Michaela home."

    In this case the child wasn't physically abandoned but the mother abandoned her duties of taking care of her child. When this happens, most of the time the mother believes she's doing the best she can and she is. Her best may not the best that anybody else can do, so instead of her doing what was best for the child she did her best and that's not healthy for the baby.