Domestic violence on the unborn child

On November 23, David Leask of the newspaper Scotsman reported that "at least 600 Scottish babies a year are judged to be at risk of abuse before they are even born" and that "official figures reveal that in the last year, 331 unborn babies were placed on the official child protection register, many of them because of their mother's drink or drug problem". He added: "In Glasgow alone, social workers deal with around 20 cases a month of unborn babies considered to be at risk of abuse."

The report in The Times (November 26) on the Conference on Domestic Violence, organised by the Commission for Domestic Violence, did not make any reference to "unborn babies considered to be at risk of abuse" through domestic violence. Was this omission due to limitation of space or because the conference, in fact, did not consider in any way the unborn child? The nature of the report indicates that only battered women were considered. If this was the case it should not have been so.

About four years ago it was officially known that there were about 14 newborns on methadone in the state hospital because their parents consumed drugs during, or before, pregnancy. And today? The local health authorities should start publishing official statistics of newborns affected by the consumption of these substances by their parents during pregnancy, as they do with the around 360 tobacco-related annual deaths in the Maltese islands.

According to Article 2. ix of the Domestic Violence Law of 2005, "the child conceived but yet unborn of any of the persons mentioned in paragraphs (i) to (vii) both inclusive" is "a member of the household" to be protected by the domestic violence law from any type of violence. In the eyes of the Domestic Violence Law the battered woman and the unborn child are the same. This is a clear indication that, locally, unborn children have a distinct legal entity of their own.

However, unborn children seem not to be drawing the attention of the local authorities as much as they should. Surely, it appears, not that of the Commission for Domestic Violence, at least so far. However, they have attracted the attention of the present Commissioner for Children and her predecessor. The Commissioner should consider including unborn children at risk of abuse on an official "child protection register", as is the case in Scotland.

The Malta Unborn Child Movement (MUCM) wrote extensively to the Domestic Violence Commission, met the Commission, and made written recommendations to the Minister for Social Policy to give very serious attention to protecting also unborn children from any type of abuse through domestic violence. The subject was also discussed in a meeting MUCM had with Joseph Cassar, the Parliamentary Secretary for Health in April of this year.

MUCM drew their attention to the dangers to the unborn child when a pregnant woman smokes, drinks or uses any kind of drugs. It is known that drugs, alcohol and tobacco adversely affect the development of the unborn child at each month of pregnancy. Emotional interviews with parents have also shown the long-term psychological and behavioural problems of substance abuse on unborn children. Which makes it imperative that in any "quality education" blueprint, as outlined by Grace Grima, director general in the Eduction Division (November 28) , early childhood development and education, also in the womb, should be a top priority. This holds good also for the University of Malta.

Paediatricians in many parts of the world contend that innocent children are being devastated by substance abuse, including binge drinking. These babies become adults who cannot function. Prenatal substance abuse exposure is a major cause of destroyed human potential for an enormous group of people who have moral and legal rights for protection from harm when they are still in their mothers' wombs.