Concealing the birth of an infant is when a parent hides the birth of their child. The term is sometimes used to refer to hiding the birth of a child from friends or family, but is most often used when the appropriate authorities have not been informed about a stillbirth or the death of a newborn. This is a crime in many countries, with varying punishments. In the UK the applicable law is the Offences against the Person Act of 1861, which gives the penalty of (up to) two years imprisonment. A human infant The word infant derives from the Latin in-fans, meaning unable to speak. ... Parenting comprises all the tasks involved in raising a child to an independent adult. ... Childbirth (also called labour, birth, partus or parturition) is the culmination of a human pregnancy with the emergence of a newborn infant from its mothers uterus. ... Stillbirth is when pregnancy ends without a live birth due to natural causes, including pregnancy loss, miscarriage, or spontaneous abortion. ...
A birth is sometimes concealed when there is a violation of the one-child policy in the People's Republic of China. The one-child policy is the current birth control policy in the mainland of the Peoples Republic of China. ...
Notable cases
In 1785 Hannah Piggen from Massachusetts was the last person to be given the death sentence in the United States for concealing the birth/death of an infant. State nickname: Bay State Other U.S. States Capital Boston Largest city Boston Governor Mitt Romney (R) Senators Edward Kennedy (D) John Kerry (D) Official language(s) English Area 27,360 km² (44th) - Land 20,317 km² - Water 7,043 km² (25. ... Capital punishment in the United States is officially sanctioned by 38 of the 50 states, as well as by the federal government. ...
For those instances where the Birth Mother (or members of her extended family) know your location and are obsessed with having information or contact whether you wish it or not, it is often best if YOU have control of the decision about release or confidentiality of your personal data.
If a birth mother concealed her pregnancy and did not tell her family or subsequent husband about the child, then it could be devastating to her in later life to have that secret revealed.
When the birth mother cannot give a name and address or it is suspected that the information she has given is not correct, then problems surface which may have no straight-forward solution.