Mother ‘abandons’ baby by discharging herself from maternity hospital, court hears

A mother discharged herself from a regional maternity hospital effectively abandoning her newborn baby, a court has heard.

After the woman discharged herself from the maternity unit last month, Tusla, the child and family agency, secured an interim care order for the then four-day-old boy.

The baby is now in foster care and at the Family Court Judge Alec Gabbett extended the care order for the baby for a further two weeks to January 26th.

After hearing an outline of the case, the judge said the parents “have abandoned their other children as well; this is child number four”.

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“It is an unusual situation.”

Solicitor for Tusla, Kevin Sherry, said along with the baby, there were three other children of the couple in care in different parts of the country.

Judge Gabbett said: “The mother discharged herself from the maternity hospital and effectively abandoned the baby knowing exactly what was going to happen as it happened three times before.”

He asked what engagement had there been with the mother and father since a December court date. Mr Sherry said the parents have had access with the baby “and it went reasonably well and the parents have requested additional access in circumstances where they effectively abandoned the child”.

Mr Sherry said the parents were informed of the court date but had not appeared and had no legal representation.

He added the baby was “doing very well in his placement”.

The Tusla-appointed social worker in the case said the mother was “extremely limited in her capacity to understand and process information. The father has a higher capacity to understand but is focused on his work and that is his priority.”

She said it was the parents’ intention “to get legal advice and they have said that they are finding it difficult to get legal advice”.

Mr Sherry said if the parents did not engage with the parental capacity assessment “my client will have no option but to look for long-term orders”.

Judge Gabbett said the parents’ attitude seemed to be, based on the current and previous situations, “if you don’t want to look after your baby, you just walk away from the hospital and the State will take care of it for you”.

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