Mbarara Grapples with Surge in Baby Abandonments

At Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, a two-month-old baby was abandoned in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit last week.
Mbarara City is facing a growing crisis as the number of abandoned babies rises alarmingly. In just the first week of January, two infants were left by their parents under heartbreaking circumstances, reflecting deeper societal and economic struggles that demand urgent intervention.
Senior Probation Officer for Mbarara City, Henry Mushabe, identifies unplanned pregnancies, the high cost of living, and shifting social norms as the main drivers of this disturbing trend.
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"When people are in a relationship without using protective measures, and shortly there is some pregnancy, either a man tends to say, ‘I’m not the one,’ or the woman tends to say, ‘I am not ready.’ The chances of this child being abandoned are very many," Mushabe explained.
At Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, a two-month-old baby was abandoned in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Witnesses say the mother claimed she was going to bathe but never returned, leaving the baby behind. Strangers have since stepped in to breastfeed and care for the child.
"How they abandoned this baby is heartbreaking. They brought her to the warmer here at the NICU. The mother came, saw the condition her baby was in, and said she couldn’t manage to take care of her," a witness said.
"While we were there, she mentioned she would go take a bath and return to breastfeed the baby. However, we waited for her, but she never came back."
Hospital officials are sounding alarms about this disturbing trend and calling for vigilance among the public and local leaders.
Halson Kagure, the public relations officer at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, emphasised the need for communities to question suspicious situations.
"Try to ask questions. If you went to the hospital when you were pregnant and then you return swinging your hands, without a baby whether dead or alive, and the society stays silent, then we have a problem," Kagure said.
Despite these grim realities, some individuals and families are stepping up to care for abandoned children.
Mushabe commended these acts of compassion: "God is good to those people who have kind hearts. Even before I take these babies to baby homes, there are applications from those who want to foster or even adopt these children."
Authorities are urging mothers in distress to seek help rather than abandon their children in hazardous conditions like streets, verandas, toilets, and hospitals. Social support services, relatives, or close friends could provide the assistance necessary to prevent such tragedies.
This rise in abandoned babies is a wake-up call for communities, leaders, and policymakers to address the root causes and support vulnerable mothers before the crisis escalates further.