Baby Born in Homeless Camp

by Shannon Moriarty · 2009-12-04 09:57:00 UTC
Topics: show more

This week in Vancouver, a baby girl was born. No, she was not born in a hospital with family eagerly anticipating her arrival in the waiting room. This little girl was born outside in a tent, part of a homeless camp that sits down an embankment off of Highway 50. Sure, it may be nice to think that the opportunities awaiting every newborn are the same. Sadly, this isn't the case.

Emergency responders were dispatched shortly after the early morning birth on Wednesday. According to the Daily News Online, both mother and baby were transported to the hospital in good condition. Miraculous, considering the outdoor temperature was near-freezing at the time of the baby's birth.

This was a tough story to read. Although, the birth of a child almost always makes me smile - even in this case. It's hard not to feel a sense of wonder whenever a new, healthy baby is brought into the world. Mixed in is a sense of uncertainty, in an "anything is possible" kind of way. What does the future have in store for this baby?, you wonder. Where you you go? What will you do? What will you become?

For some families, however, this uncertainty has an entirely different meaning, like when it's time to leave the hospital and return to reality. For so many mothers and newborns, this sometimes means returning to a crowded, hectic homeless shelter. How long will we be able to live here? Where will we go next? For others - like the young mother and baby in Vancouver - the answers to these questions are even more unknown when there isn't even a shelter to return to.

It would be nice to think that we all toe the same line at the start of life. That we all start at the same place with the same conditions, and have the same opportunities and challenges. But as this story illustrates, this is not the case.

Some babies are born in a hospital, surrounded by doctors and nurses, and return home to a freshly painted nursery packed with new clothes and toys.

Others are born outside, on a near-freezing night, to a homeless mother in a tent city.

Image: Sean Drellinger

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
PREVIOUS STORY:
'Affordable Housing'--Theory vs. Reality
NEXT STORY:
Sallie Mae Blinks!

COMMENTS (8)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.