We reported yesterday morning on the miracle baby in Pujiang, Zhejiang province who survived being flushed down a squat toilet. The latest report is — while not necessarily more shocking — just as incredible.
Turn your attention to the above newscast, which says authorities have identified the child’s mother — in fact, had basically known who she was all this time, since she was the one who alerted her landlord to the infant in the toilet in the first place.
The story goes that the woman, 22 years old this year, met a young man at the end of last year and got pregnant. The man, however, wouldn’t recognize the child as his, so she planned to secretly give birth.
On the afternoon of May 25, the woman felt stomach convulsions. She squatted over a toilet, and not long afterwards, a 2.3-kilogram human being came out.
The baby then slipped into the hole. The young mother reached in and tried to grab her newborn, but the more she reached, the farther from her grasp the child slipped. Failing to extract the baby with even the plunger, the woman panicked.
She flushed away the blood. And then she went to her landlord to report that a child was in the sewage pipes.
The baby, as you already know, was successfully rescued, and will survive. The mother — rather heartbreakingly, if you ask us — has decided she is unable to raise him, so his immediate future still hangs in the balance.
AFP adds that police will not be prosecuting the mother — who is in “serious condition due to complications from the delivery” — and have deemed this incident an accident. The child “suffered some cuts to his face and limbs and was put in an incubator at the Pujiang People’s Hospital, [authorities and media reports] said, where nurses dubbed him ‘Baby No 59′ after the machine’s number.”
The head of the hospital, Wu Xinhong, said the infant was healthy and ready to be released.
“His condition is good but his relatives have not come to pick him up yet,” he told AFP.
Police have said the mother was in serious condition due to complications from the delivery, while authorities were still looking for the baby’s father.
We don’t know if Baby No. 59 will ever learn, one day, how he came into this world. But we wish him the best, because from here, it can only get better… right?
UPDATE, 5/30, 1:16 pm: Baby 59 has been released to the hospital, but we’re not sure to whose custody.
Wow, that’s amazing. I’m glad it was an accident (which it really does sound like) and it wasn’t malicious. Still, poor babe. I hope he finds a forever family soon.
How did the cord get cut? I don’t believe this for a second.
I’m not 100% here but I thought the cord was attached to the placenta, which also would have come out with the baby, nto attached to the mother.
It sounds more like the woman said it was an accident after the baby was flushed on purpose
There’s a bit of both going on. Who knows how giving birth over a squat toilet will mess with your mind. She ended up doing the right thing though, which is calling for help.
“Help, my toilet’s backed up”
More like refusal of a forced marriage with the father made her lose her mind. Guess the Chinese women have a lot to learn from their western sisters when it comes to manipulating men.
No flush with a squat toilet. Just a big hole into pipes. Things fall away automatically.
I’ve heard waaaaay to many babies in the toilet stories. What is it about toilets that make women give accidental birth? And in every story the lady comes in and says “I didn’t notice!” No really, in one story a woman in Canada claimed she didn’t notice she gave birth because she was shit faced and next morning she felt 2 pounds lighter.
According to ICS ShanghaiLive news from last night the 29th of May, the landlord was the one who heard the baby crying and the police identified the mother because of the bloody tissues and toys in her room. Also, the girl knew she was giving birth at the time over a toilet and tried to grab her newborn but it slipped down the hole…
ICS is avialable online here: http://live.kankanews.com/huikan/?cid=220&time=1369866600000
Just look for “ShanghaiLive” from early this morning (the 30th) or late last night (the 29th). The story is at 2:35
She clearly was planning on keeping the baby then if she’d bought baby toys.
As presented here, this story might make sense except for
“She flushed away the blood”
…because if you have a baby stuck down the toilet and you want it to live, flushing seems a truly terrible idea.