KOMATIPOORT – Local police were shocked to discover a newborn baby, who had apparently been abandoned, near the station on Thursday afternoon.
Spokesman, Const Natacia Mbuyane, said officers were heading back to the station after conducting raids on the hawker stalls near Lebombo Border Post, when a community member alerted them to something strange.
Mbuyane saw what looked like a baby or doll at one of the police station gates that is no longer in use. She was afraid to investigate.
Capt Mercy Lushaba approached and discovered the newborn. She was assisted by Sgt Ayanda Dube.
Mbuyane rushed to nearby offices of Securicon Lowveld to summon its ambulance service. Paramedics accompanied her to the scene and assessed the baby.
A 17-year-old girl then arrived and told the group that the child was hers. The girl said she had felt ill and visited the clinic and was surprised by the news that she was pregnant. She was given medication and sent on her way. Shortly afterwards she went into labour and her little girl was born.
The teen told the people on the scene that she had left to go buy sanitary towels and get a plastic bag to carry the baby in.
The mother and child were then taken to Tonga Hospital.
Lushaba, Dube and Mbuyane visited the mother and baby in hospital the next day. They handed over nappies, toiletries and baby clothes, donated by the station’s officers, to the mother.
Mbuyane stated that the baby had been born at 30 weeks and weighed 800 grams, but was healthy.
Read about an incident last month where a woman gave birth at the Malelane Police Station, here.
