Member-only story
Baby 59: Stuck in the L-Junction of a Sewer Pipe
Was the woman responsible for flushing away her child, or was the one-child policy to blame?
Today, there are more unintended pregnancies because people don’t know enough about sex and because people are becoming more accepting of sex before marriage.
In May 2013, in eastern China, a video of firefighters and medical workers saving Baby 59 went viral, making the whole country cry.
The case also reignited the debate over the country’s enduringly divisive one-child policy.
The unidentified 22-year-old young woman fell pregnant after a brief romance with a local man. Due to her fear of embarrassing her family and her inability to afford an abortion, she hid her pregnancy. She was able to hide the fact that she was pregnant by wearing loose clothes and tightly wrapping her stomach.
When her contractions began, she gave birth discreetly in a communal restroom. The mother claims that after giving birth, she slid into the toilet.
She attempted to grab him and rescue him with a mop, but was unsuccessful.
She cleaned up the blood and, without revealing that she was the mother, informed the landlord that there was a baby in the toilet.
