More female babies getting abandoned in govt hospital

Coimbatore: The Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) handed over a 36-day-old abandoned female baby to an orphanage in the city on Thursday.
The baby, who was born with low birth weight issues, was the 12th child to be abandoned in the hospital this year. The worrying trend is that 10 of the 12 abandoned infants were females, posing the question whether girl children are again being refused by families.
Hospital authorities said the baby girl was born on October 23 to an unwed woman, identified as Thenmozhi and that the infant was suffering from minor growth retardation as she was born between 34 and 36 weeks. The child weighed less than 1kg at birth.
Dr A Soundaravel, resident medical officer of CMCH, said, “Though the mother was discharged on October 28, the baby was in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). She left the hospital on November 1. We knew she was aged less than 20 years and not married. We took care of the baby since that day and ensured her health condition improved. She now weighs slightly more than 2kg.”
Soundaravel handed over the baby girl to Sharanalayam orphanage at Kinathukidavu on Thursday. Pointing out that CMCH had received 12 abandoned babies so far this year, he said, “Ten of them were females. While some of them were abandoned because of their health issues, in this case the mother was unmarried. However, in majority of the cases, the abandoned babies were not sick, and they had elder siblings.”
Vanitha Rangaraj, founder of Sharanalayam, said female babies were in demand among the couple who come for adoption. “We receive more female babies and parents who register also prefer them.” The orphanage receives one to two babies a month.