China must change its child policy

I know I wasn’t the only one shocked at the image of a newborn baby being rescued from a sewage pipe in China this week.

The poor little mite has had the worst possible start in life after his distraught young mum gave birth, scared and alone, in a filthy toilet.

She claims she rushed to the loo with stomach pains and her son simply emerged, fell in and she was unable to catch him.

Whatever the truth, it’s impossible not to feel sorry for the 22-year-old from Jineau in eastern China.

She is unmarried and claims the baby’s father wouldn’t stand by her. She couldn’t afford an abortion, and tried to disguise her pregnancy by bandaging her stomach tight and wearing loose clothes.

In her traumatised state she probably believed the baby had been flushed away, but the tiny newborn was trapped in the sewage pipe.

People in the rundown block of flats heard the baby crying and called the authorities.

The astonishing images of him being cut out of the pipe by firefighters were remarkable, and it is incredible that he appeared to have suffered little more than cuts and bruises when you consider that he was stuck in that disgusting, stinking toilet for two days.

What is unusual in this case is that it happened to a baby boy.

In China, it’s usually baby girls who are abandoned due to the government’s strict one child policy brought in to control the growing population.

As well as causing untold misery, couples who disobey the rule face fines which they often can’t afford to pay. They are then forced to simply walk away from the babies, overwhelmingly girls, abandoning them.

This policy has resulted in a massive rise in abortions in China.

With the use of ultrasound equipment terminations are often being performed if the foetus is female, even although this is illegal.

The one child policy has also led to the repellent “Little Emperor” syndrome. If you have been to China you’ll no doubt have come across the fat, horribly spoiled and overindulged single son who is treated like a king.

It’s also meant that the ratio of boys to girls is skewed and 30 years down the line we have young men simply unable to find women to marry. There have been disturbing cases of young girls being kidnapped by men desperate for a wife.

The mother of this little baby won’t face charges and it’s believed she’s now looking after her son and he’s been released from hospital.

Hopefully she’ll get the help and support she needs, and we can only pray the rest of the baby’s life is less traumatic than the way he came into the world.