Relative Tagaloa Neoka Puni is hoping Maika’s home village will give her support when she returns. Baby Grace remains in the care of Child, Youth and Family, and immigration officials plan to talk with Karolaine Maika.
On board a Pacific Blue flight from Apia to Auckland on March 19, confused and losing blood from a difficult birth, Maika discarded her newborn baby in a rubbish bin.
In court, it was revealed that the traumatic delivery left her struggling to make a rational decision about what to do when her tiny daughter arrived unexpectedly.
The Samoan woman pleaded guilty to abandoning the infant and appeared in the Manukau District Court on Thursday where a charge of assault was dropped. It appears none of the 150 passengers on the flight, or the plane’s crew, were aware the woman had given birth.
Mother and baby were taken to Middlemore Hospital and Child, Youth and Family Services were called in. Maika was convicted and discharged over the child’s abandonment and will now be deported back to Samoa.
The court heard how Maika was ashamed of having a child out of wedlock because single mothers are looked down on in Samoan culture and she was embarrassed to tell her family about the pregnancy.
