Mother of a two week old baby rejected her tiny child citing that she was too ugly. The baby was born premature, seven months itno pregnancy, with a rare wrinkly condition and weighs 800 grams now.
The girl is currently recovering from dehydration at a local hospital as her mother Mamata Dode, 25, refused to feed her. The baby survived only because her 50-year-old grandfather Dilpe Dode took care of her giving her goat milk from a spoon for several weeks until she fell ill.
I am thankful to the hospital for giving free medical treatment to my granddaughter. It is really disheartening that even her parents have rejected her but I will go to any extent to save her. When the baby was given to us, we were left shocked. From our relatives to villagers, everyone gathered at our home to have a look at the baby.And when they got to see her they ran away in fear. None held the baby in hands as they thought they will catch the disease. Even my son and daughter-in-law refused to accept her as they were embarrassed to have given birth to her, he said.
The child was admitted to Wadia hospital in Maharashtra, western India, which authorities have agreed to give her free medical services and even arranged accommodation for Mr Dode. He seems to be the one in the family who really cares about the granddaughter and still hopes that one day her parents will accept her.
The doctors believe that the baby suffers from Intra-Uterine Growth Retardation (IUGR), a condition where fetus is not growing at a normal rate inside the womb. They are waiting for the lab results to confirm that. There are many causes of Intra-Uterine Growth Retardation which include poor maternal nutrition, lack of adequate oxygen supply to the fetus, anemia, maternal smoking, alcohol and/or drug use, recent pregnancy, gestational diabetes, pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease hypertension and many more.
