Olga Alexandrovna Manerova, Alena Yuryevna Markina

Abstract

In modern Russia, poverty is no longer the main motivation for mothers to give up their newborns and has given its way to other reasons. The authors conducted a survey of 137 mothers from the cities of the Chelyabinsk region who gave up their children in 2015, 2017, and 2019. The goal was to identify the current causes of giving up newborns in obstetric care institutions. Throughout all three years of the study, women named the difficult financial situation (52.6 ± 7.2% of the respondents) the leading reason for giving up a newborn child. The second most frequent cause was deviant motherhood, which began before the birth of the baby (26.6 ± 3.5%). The last of the three main causes of giving up newborns was a severe pathology in the child (14.5 ± 5.1%). The next constant reason was having a child out of wedlock for single immigrant women from neighboring countries (4.8 ± 1.1%). In 2017, 4.8% of the mothers participating in the survey indicated an unresolved housing problem. Psychological testing clarified the results of the sociological study and showed that the real significance of the difficult financial situation as a cause of giving up children amounted only to 14.5%. Every second newborn given up for adoption (51.5%) was abandoned by the mother due to deviant motherhood. In every fourth case (25.7%), the cause of giving up the child was a severe pathology in the newborn.