Of Safe Havens, Barney-esque PSAs, Malaysian Babyklappen and the Need for Effective Health Communication: Ways to Address the Baby Dumping Epidemic

So I’ve just found out about the PSA on baby dumping currently broadcasting on Malaysian tv and I am absolutely livid. I am baffled, mortified; absolutely and totally gobsmacked, and in the following paragraphs I’ll tell you why.

The Malaysian government has, in the past week, released a PSA on baby dumping featuring local celebrities singing together, yodelling on and on about how baby dumping is bad etcetera. Now the song goes on with a prancey, happy sort of tune, and half way through the PSA I could feel my jugular pulsing in my neck. First of all, treating the Malaysian public like morons is not going to help them become any smarter or any more aware of baby dumping. The government has just wasted money on filming this useless ad. The problem lies in ineffective health communication. I mean, when’s the last time you’ve learnt something via a song? When you were three, perhaps? We’ve seriously got to start addressing public health issues such as this like adults, via adult discussions and scientific and sociological research conducted by qualified and rational adults instead of providing the Malaysian public with a Barney-esque embarrassment of a PSA ad.

We have to sit down and talk about this. Katherine A Kunkel in her 2007 article says: ‘The potential to improve the health and well-being of these mothers and their newborns lies in our willingness to discuss the issue of infant abandonment and to strategize to improve outcomes.’ (Katherine A Kunkel, ‘Safe Haven Laws Focus on Abandoned Newborns and their Mothers’ (2007) 22(5) Journal of Pediatric Nursing 397 at 400)

I understand this PSA must’ve been the result of people sitting down and talking about this. But I’d like to know who exactly was on the board at this discussion. I’d like to know where the health communication experts were at the meeting when they decided to make this ad. I’d like to know where the health lawyers were. I’d like to know if those making the decisions on this ad have seen PSAs in health-conscious developed nations like Australia. I can tell you this: PSAs in Australia are bloody well done. And what this baby dumping ad does is, well, nothing. Nothing useful, that is to say. Except infuriate plenty of concerned citizens, confuse citizens who are unaware of legal and sociological issues to this problem, and, make the directors of the PSA look like morons.

So what are we going to do? Well, the first thing to do is have a look at the academic literature and see whether steps taken in countries with these problems have had the necessary positive and harm reduction effects. Kunkel points out that ‘New Jersey required the establishment of a public information program, a 24 hour toll free hotline, and an appropriation of US$500,000 for the program. California created public service announcements, media coverage, Internet articles, and bilingual publications.’ (Id at 399) The video of the Californian PSA can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbvUKzvf4Og (Accessed 2 August 2010)

But that’s just the health communication side of it.

Policy-makers need to be able to look at the possibility of enacting safe-haven legislation, such as has been enacted in many states in the United States, Italy, Germany, etcetera. Safe-haven legislation is legislation that decriminalises baby abandonment and provides a safe place where mothers can leave their newborns, for example a health care facility. In 1999, Texas became the first state in the United States to enact safe-haven law. In Italy, ‘baby boxes’ are used. In Germany, Babyklappen (baby flaps) have been used since 2000. (Joanne Mueller and Lorraine Sherr, ‘Abandoned Babies and Absent Policies’ (2009) 93 Health Policy 157 at 158) These boxes usually are equipped with electronic sensors that notify physicians when a baby is left. (Kunkel, at 397) This ensures that the newborns are safe, and allows them to get access to health care services.

Kunkel states: ‘Although there is much controversy regarding the effectiveness of safe-haven laws, perhaps what they have done best is to give voice to those who cannot speak for themselves – the newborn infants and their mothers.’ [Emphasis added.] (Id at 399)

Sandra Cesario in her 2003 article speaks of a ‘renewed interest’ in the issue of baby abandonment, and this renewed interest in my view is for good reason. She says: ‘This renewed interest has led to changes in social and health care policy, attitudinal changes of the general public, and legislation to address the issue.’ (Sandra Cesario, ‘Nurses’ Attitudes and Knowledge of their Roles in Newborn Abandonment’ (2003) 12(2) The Journal of Perinatal Education 31 at 32) She goes on to say: ‘A negative attitude about the women who commit this act and a lack of knowledge regarding the state’s existing ‘safe-haven’ laws may impede the health care professional’s ability to provide sensitive and effective care within the context of the law.’ [Emphasis added.] (Ibid)

In my view, this quote – although written with regard to the Texan situation – bears much relevance and is of useful guidance to Malaysian policymakers. Our baby dumping situation has gotten out of control. What we have to focus on is not producing dandy songs on baby dumping. What we have to focus on is the question: How can we ensure that these innocent newborns receive sensitive and effective care?

By critiquing the sing-song PSA I don’t intend to undermine the importance of health communication; far from it. In my view, there are much, much better ways to address the issue of baby abandonment in Malaysia and increase public awareness of baby abandonment issues. A song-and-dance PSA is not the way. This is not Sesame Street. This is the real world. And in the real world, babies are dying. They are dying in garbage cans and in toilet bowls with their umbilical cords still attached. Their mothers are often uneducated and are unable to care for the babies. We need to rationally assess safe-haven legislation and the possibility of creating Babyklappen in Malaysia. The lives of these newborns depend on it.

I end this blog entry with a reference to the views of blogger Abdul Muiz bin Azmi on baby abandonment and his views that parents should advise their children against wearing ‘sexy clothing’ and discuss appropriate boy-girl relationships. http://my.opera.com/muiz5339/blog/baby-dumping-in-malaysia-islam-as-a-solution (Accessed 2 August 2010) With all due respect to Abdul Muiz, this view is going to bring us nowhere in addressing this baby dumping epidemic. Kids are going to have sex despite all sorts of abstinence rhetoric. That's the reality of it and we are just going to have to accept this fact. We also have to consider that we live in a multicultural, multireligious, multiracial society, and that any legislation needs to respect people of different cultural backgrounds. Unfortunately, there are always going to be unwanted children, and policymakers have to ensure that these unwanted children have an opportunity towards a healthy and happy future.