Neonaticide

[5] Article 149 of the Penal Code of Poland stipulates that a mother who kills her child in labour, while under the influence of the course of the delivery, is liable to imprisonment for between three months and five years.

Article 200 of the new Penal Code stipulates that the killing of a newborn during the first 24 hours, by the mother who is in a state of mental distress, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to five years.

[20][21] The church consistently dealt more leniently with those mothers whose children died by overlaying, an accidental death by smothering when a sleeping parent rolled over on the infant.

The opinions of the church in these deaths may reflect an awareness of one of society's first attempts to understand the severe problem of overpopulation and overcrowding.

[25] Unlike England and other European countries, the United States has not adopted special statutes to deal with infanticide or neonaticide.

Nonetheless, juries and judges, as reflected in their verdicts and sentences, have consistently considered the difficulties and stresses of a mother during the post-partum period.

[27] This was also reported to be happening as early as 2007 in Victoria, where 52 babies were born alive after failed late-term abortions[28] with accusations that some were "simply put on a shelf and left to die.

[1] Anonymous delivery, a system where mothers can give birth in a hospital for free without showing ID, has been found to reduce the rate of police reported neonaticides in Austria.

In modern times, baby hatch systems have been introduced in hospitals and other areas to allow mothers to leave children.

[35][36] The hatches are usually in hospitals, social centres, or churches, and consist of a door or flap in an outside wall which opens onto a soft bed, heated or at least insulated.