Girl, 14, buries her baby in the forest

A NAKED NEWBORN baby boy who was buried alive in a shallow grave in a forest in Princes Town by his 14-year-old mother was rescued after a villager followed a blood trail which led them to the baby’s muffled cries. The baby, who was buried under dry leaves, soil and burnt bamboo for almost half an hour before he was dug out, is said to be in good health. Mother and baby are warded at the San Fernando General Hospital. Police said the teenager delivered the baby herself and buried him in a desperate attempt to hide the baby from her mother since she had not told them of her pregnancy.

Police received unconfirmed reports that a 63-year-old man is the baby’s father. It was in the kitchen of the neighbour’s house, who she was staying with, that the teenager began experiencing labour pains  midday on Friday. Police sources said the girl, who was home alone, went to a bathroom outside the house and delivered the baby herself. The bleeding teenager held the naked baby in her arms and walked one mile into a forested area where she dug a two-feet deep hole. She then placed the crying baby boy in the hole and threw dry leaves, soil and pieces of bamboo on top of him. When the baby was completely covered she walked out of the forest.

By this time, a villager, who saw the girl holding the baby in her arms had already informed her relatives that she had given birth. But when they went in search of her, they could not find the teenager anywhere. Recounting the incident, villager, Sheldon Monsegue, told Sunday Newsday when relatives asked her what she did with the baby she denied that she had given birth. Monsegue said half-an-hour later when the EHS ambulance came, the teenager told the medical personnel that she had a miscarriage in the forest. Monsegue said he and the EHS ambulance followed a blood trail into the forest. The villager said they eventually found the afterbirth near a river but they saw no trace of the baby.

“The EHS man got fed up and was walking back out of the forest. But I said ‘Lord show me where this child is he is innocent,’” he said. About 200 feet away from the afterbirth, Monsegue said he heard the distant cries of a baby. “By the grace of God I followed the cries coming from a small grave. I dig out about 12 inch of stuff before I find the naked baby,” he said. The baby was rushed to the Princes Town Hospital where he was treated. An EHS ambulance then transferred the baby, who was in an incubator, to the SFGH. As tears streamed down her face, the girl’s mother, who lives in a small house with her common-law-husband, next door to a neighbour her teenaged daughter was staying by, told Newsday that she was not aware that her daughter was pregnant.

She said people speculated that the girl was pregnant but: “Her belly was not showing and she used to be toting buckets of water and climbing trees all the time.” The unemployed mother of six said her daughter dropped out of school — Princes Town Junior Secondary School in January — because she could no longer continue to send her to school. The woman’s common-law-husband is a CEPEP worker. Inspite of their poverty situation, the mother said she wants to keep the baby. “It is my grandchild. He is so lovely. I don’t know why she did this,” the mother continued.

Police detectives told Sunday Newsday that Social Welfare has been contacted and they were not certain whether criminal charges would be laid against the teenaged mom.  However, they said she is also the subject of a rape inquiry since she was a minor when she was impregnated. Visiting the scene was a party of officers from the Princes Town Police Station headed by Snr Supt Gopiechan Ganga and ASP Valdez.