Lentswe, Klerksdorp - The new-born baby who was found in Neserhof last week has been reunited with her mother. Lentswe has reliably learned that the mother is being treated for postpartum depression and there is a chance that she will give her child up for adoption. Lentswe was told on condition of anonymity that the mother didn’t realise she was pregnant and when she went to the state hospital in Potchefstroom with severe stomach pains she gave birth to a little girl. After she was discharged from the hospital, she went with the baby to her parents’ house in Klerksdorp. Early Thursday morning, September 12, she walked through Neserhof’s streets with the baby in her arms. Uncertain and scared and when someone from the neighbourhood watch stopped her, she told him that she had found the baby under a tree. The little girl was wrapped in a blanket and dressed in blue clothes. She had some diapers and milk with her.
The police took the baby to Klerksdorp Hospital where she was declared healthy. Soon after, Klerksdorp Record reported the incident on social media and the post was shared more than 690 times with more than 350,000 people seeing it. Several people offered to adopt the baby and while some condemned the mother, others were sympathetic towards her.
Lentswe learned that the mother went to the hospital that same afternoon where she confessed to the social worker that it was her baby, and that she needed help. “The baby is probably going to be given up for adoption. She suffers from post-partum depression and is receiving treatment. The baby is doing well,’’ said Lentswe’s source.
The baby touched the hearts of the entire community and reached government circles with MEC Susan Dantjie and MEC Kenetswe Mosegnogi visiting the baby together with Klerksdorp’s executive mayor, Fikile Mahlophe. They took baby supplies with them.
Dantjie from the Department for Social Development encouraged pregnant women caught unawares to call on social workers and consider adoption rather than abandoning them.
