Durban - The case against the 27-year-old woman who allegedly dumped her newborn baby in a stormwater drain went ahead at the Ntuzuma Magistrate's Court. This was despite the fact that the woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, was still recovering in hospital, police said on Wednesday.
Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said the woman had been charged with attempted murder and remained under police guard at a Durban hospital.
In court, it was revealed that the woman was from Newlands East. The matter was remanded.
The newborn baby had been dumped in a stormwater drain in Newlands East and was rescued after emergency workers dug a trench to reach the infant on last week.
The baby's cries alerted a passersby to its location and the baby, believed to be a girl, was stabilised at the scene and loaded into a medical helicopter and taken to a hospital.
Dubbed the miracle baby, she was the second child to have been dumped in the Durban area in the past week.
Last week, a newborn baby was found dumped in a rubbish bin on Bulwer Road and Lytton Avenue in Glenwood.
Paramedics were called out after residents found the infant in a packet.
And in another incident, a 20-year-old matric pupil was charged with attempted murder when she threw away her baby at a medical waste bin at the King Edward VIII Hospital.
She was released on warning after appearing in the Durban Magistrate's Court, while her parents have said they will support her and the baby.