MP attacks pregnancy culture of shame

Su'a William Sio. Photo / Richard Robinson

Open discussions about sex should be encouraged to prevent young women from getting rid of their newborns, an MP said.

Last Thursday a Samoan woman gave birth during a flight from Apia to Auckland and dumped the child in a rubbish bin. The woman was later found inside Auckland International Airport looking pale and bloodstained and was taken to hospital - with the child, who was found alive.

Mangere MP Su'a William Sio said it was not the first time a Samoan woman had tried to get rid of her newborn.

Cultural stigma and the shame of having a child while unmarried were some of the key issues surrounding why young women - both in Samoa and New Zealand - dumped their children, Mr Sio said.

"This is mostly derived firstly by fear - fear that they've done something wrong and fear of shame of the [unmarried] mother bringing to the family."

In 2006, a 20-year-old scholarship student from Samoa attending Otago University was convicted of infanticide after she threw her newborn out of a window. A court heard she had hidden her pregnancy because she did not want to lose her scholarship and was ashamed of becoming pregnant while unmarried.

Mr Sio acknowledged that because many Pacific parents tended to shy away from talking about sex with their children, it was difficult for young unmarried women who found themselves pregnant.

The latest incident has had wide exposure in Samoa, where the media called it an "international embarrassment", saying it had ruined the country's good name.

The editor of Samoa Observer, Keni Ramese-Lesa, wrote a day after the incident: "This international embarrassment would never have happened if the systems we have in place were working. For instance, aren't people like this woman required to undergo a full medical check-up before being given the okay to be part of such schemes?"

Counties Manukau police yesterday said they hoped to have moved the case forward by the end of the week.

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Cherelle Jackson, Beck Vass