This mom/midwife isn’t gonna wait around for the government to step up and do the right thing, and in the mean time lose precious lives while waiting.
Back in 2014, a little baby boy was found abandoned in a drain, left for dead by his mother. Just one week later, another newborn was found buried at Maroubra Beach in Australia. The cases were not related, but that’s what made the two tragic discoveries within seven short days so much more horrifying for 56-year-old Catherine Lucre.
The midwife and nurse from Sydney was sick to her stomach over the news and appalled that nobody was taking action to make a safe space for mothers to leave unwanted babies.
“I don’t understand why we as a society aren’t outraged by the discovery of babies being buried in the sand,” she reported to the UK Daily Mail. “If the government isn’t doing anything, I will.”
And these two instances were not the first that Catherine had encountered. In 2009, there was a baby body uncovered at a rubbish heap, and she called the cops to pay for the funeral. In her career as a midwife, she saw many mothers who struggled with depression and other personal issues that made caring for a baby difficult, but she was devastated that they didn’t know they had options.
“I understand there are reasons women are pushed to conceal their pregnancies, and there are a lot of women who suffer from depression,” she said.
As a mother of four, her heart broke for the innocent children who were being punished for this, so she decided to create “Operation Safe Haven.” On her organization’s Facebook page, she provides her phone number and location, and states that she is open 24 hours for mothers to drop off unwanted babies. She leaves a bassinet by her front door so that they may leave their infant at her doorstep without being identified or having to answer any questions.
Mom works to stop scenes like this.
“If you are in distress and don’t know what to do. I am offering a safe place with no judgment where you can leave your baby to be placed in a safe area,” Catherine wrote on the page.
She says she has not yet been contacted by any mothers, but that has not stopped her from pursuing the baby-saving mission that has been placed on her heart.
Praise God for moms like Mrs. Lucre who are looking out for His little ones even when their own caretakers have abandoned them. In God’s eyes, there’s no such thing as an unwanted child, so if that bassinet spares the life of even one baby, this mama bear knows her efforts were more than worth it.
