Mother shows remorse, claims no memory of throwing baby
THE last thing she said she remembered was giving birth. When she woke up, she said she was at the hospital.
“Wa siya’y kalibutan kon unsay nahitabo (She can’t recall anything),” Dr. Ester Concha, chief of the Cebu City’s Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS), said after speaking with the mother of a newborn girl, who survived after being thrown out the window of a house in Maria Luisa Estate Subdivision.
“She may have been stressed out over her pregnancy and where she would go after giving birth. She was probably at a loss over how to raise her child. Let’s give her time,” Concha added.
The mother, a housemaid from Bohol, may be discharged today from the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) with her baby.
The maid earlier told police she had tried to hide her pregnancy because the father was married to someone else, and she had her own partner and children in Bohol.
Concha said that for the meantime, mother and child, will be temporarily housed at an undisclosed location. Social workers will monitor them at the center and Concha said she will visit at least once a week.
Concha said she would not recommend filing charges against the mother.
“Otherwise, who will breastfeed the baby if the mother goes to jail?”she asked.
Mabolo police earlier said the woman could be liabile for frustrated infanticide if it’s proven that she intended to kill the child.
The baby was found near a ravine at the back of the house where the maid was employed in affluent Maria Luisa Subdivision.Police said a jogger, Ariel Pipino, heard the baby’s cries and alerted a security guard, leading both to discover the baby entangled in some vines behind the house on May 6.
Concha said the mother, who had first rejected the baby, started breastfeeding her daughter yesterday and was crying the whole time.
“Medyo nagmahay kay naghilak man gani (She seemed remorseful because she was crying),” Concha said.
Both mother and daughter were in good physical condition. The mother’s bleeding has stopped.
The baby’s biological father remained unidentified. Her employer has also not been named by the police.
“She is willing to keep the baby with her now. She still doesn’t know where to go, but she said she was willing to go home to Bohol,” Concha added.
Only the mother’s sister, who worked as a maid in the same household, was aware of the pregnancy. The mother said she has not been on good terms with her live-in partner for the last two years.
Concha said the mother would have to carefully decide whether she would keep the baby.
“If she is ready, why not?” she added.
She said the DSWS can help arrange the baby’s baptism and assist the mother until she goes home to Bohol.
Several people have expressed interest in adopting the baby but Concha said this could not be entertained because the mother has not given up the infant.
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