Across cities and villages, from alleyways to hospital corridors, an alarming pattern continues to surface—abandoned newborns, often discarded with nothing but a scrap of cloth or placed in the hope someone else might find them. 

While these stories stir outrage and grief, they also raise a painful but necessary question: Why would a woman abandon her own child?

The answer is neither simple nor singular. It is rooted in layers of trauma, desperation, and often a brutal failure of society to protect its most vulnerable.

Desperation Fueled by Poverty

One of the most prevalent reasons behind infant abandonment is crippling poverty. When a woman lacks access to income, housing, food, or even basic healthcare, pregnancy can quickly spiral from a private burden into a public catastrophe. 

Without financial support or social safety nets, some women—especially single mothers—feel trapped, unable to provide for a child they did not plan for or cannot sustain.

In such harsh realities, some see abandonment not as cruelty, but as a twisted form of mercy—hoping someone else will offer what they cannot.

The Stigma of Unwed Motherhood

In many cultures, having a child outside of marriage still carries a heavy social stigma. Women—particularly teenagers—face rejection from families, religious communities, or schools. Fear of shame, judgment, and isolation drives some into silence and secrecy during pregnancy, with abandonment becoming a final, panicked act to protect themselves from being ostracized.

For many of these young women, society’s judgment is louder than a baby’s cry.

Mental Health Struggles and Postpartum Trauma

Mental illness, especially postpartum depression or psychosis, often goes undiagnosed and untreated. After giving birth, some women experience intense emotional and psychological distress that clouds judgment, heightens anxiety, or detaches them from their child.

 In extreme cases, the condition spirals into acts of desperation, including abandonment.

When mental health services are inaccessible or stigmatized, women are left to struggle in silence—sometimes until it’s too late.

Rape, Incest, and Unwanted Pregnancies

Some pregnancies are born out of trauma—sexual violence, incest, or coercion. The emotional weight of such experiences can make it nearly impossible for a survivor to bond with or even acknowledge the child.

 For these women, the infant may represent pain rather than joy. Abandonment, while tragic, becomes an act of emotional dissociation.

In these cases, the child becomes collateral damage in a battle the mother never chose to fight.

Lack of Support Systems and Safe Alternatives

Many women simply do not know where to turn. In some countries, legal options like safe haven laws (which allow for anonymous, legal surrender of infants) are nonexistent or poorly publicized. In places where adoption systems are slow, bureaucratic, or corrupt, desperation grows. With no one to counsel them, no institutions to shield them, and no systems to protect the child, abandonment becomes a misguided last resort.

A Systemic Failure, Not Just a Personal One

It’s easy to demonize a woman who leaves her baby behind—but it’s far harder to examine the societal rot that leads her there. These acts don’t emerge from nowhere. They reflect a landscape where mental health is neglected, poverty is criminalized, sex education is lacking, reproductive rights are restricted, and shame is weaponized.

Until these root causes are addressed, infant abandonment will continue to fester in the shadows.