Child abandonment is the practice of abandoning offspring outside of legal adoption.The abandoned child is called a foundling or throwaway. According to a reliable statistics, one baby is abandoned every week. A figure that has trebled in the past decades. Causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness.

One factor that leads to child abandonment is teenage pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy is defined as a teenage or underage girl becoming pregnant.This pregnancy of teenagers are a mere result of the gratification of sexual urges. That pregnancy might not happen only if studies were prioritized rather than having relationships with the opposite sex. No premarital sex, no early pregnancy. Worst thing about this is that it is the child that will suffer. If not aborted, they are abandoned by their biological parents.

Another factor is the family break-up. Family break-ups happen after a long period of misunderstandings, fighting and unhappiness. Sometimes they happen suddenly and it is hard to understand why there needs to be change at all. Children are mostly affected by this kind of situation. If both their mother and father decided to a divorce and one cannot raise their child alone, tendency is that they will abandon their child. This child will become homeless and found himself alone.

Poverty is also another factor that fates to child abandonment. Persons in cultures with poor social welfare systems who are not financially capable of taking care of a child are more likely to abandon him/her. Political conditions, such as difficulty in adoption proceedings, may also contribute to child abandonment, as can the lack of institutions, such as orphanages, to take in children whom their parents cannot support. Societies with strong social structures and liberal adoption laws tend to have lower rates of child abandonment.

Psychologists believe that even short-term abandonment can damage a child’s emotional and social development. “Even short separations could have a negative effect on the child’s ability to form close relationships,” said Dr Michael Boulton, a child psychologist at the University of Keele. “Babies often form attachments with their mother before birth. They know their mother’s smell and turn to them when anxious or distressed. If they suddenly find they have gone it can be very damaging.”

Dr Boulton said that mothers who abandon their children normally do so under desperate circumstances. “Having one’s first child is the most stressful experience someone can go through. Young mothers can be vulnerable, especially if they are alone and do not have the experience or social support to cope.”