The lead story in yesterday's STAR was as shocking as it was disturbing.

According to the story, a 26-year-old woman delivered a baby by the side of the road and then abandoned the child on the grounds of a church. This story is disheartening on so many different levels.

In this day and age, where there are so many options for struggling mothers, it is hard to believe that there are still women who think that abandoning their child is the only solution. In the last few years, many agencies have been created with the view to prevent things like this, but apparently the message is not being understood.

Is it that this mother had no friends or family members to turn to? Having to deliver your own child by the side of the road and then depend on a stranger to cut the umbilical cord, must be a traumatic experience. Perhaps it was this trauma that forced her to abandon her baby. We may never know.

What is key however, is that we try to refrain from being quick to judge. Though it might be easy to describe her negatively, we should remember that we have no idea what this woman's cir-cumstances are and that many women undergo depression during and after their pregnancies. During this time, they are more likely to do, or consider doing things that they normally would not do.

What we should try to do therefore, is to make the options known to more women and get them to realise that abandoning a child is never the answer.