In spite of an apparent recognition of the consequences of child abandonment and a variety of societal responses to the problem, several questions remain unanswered. This article explores the conditions and possible causes of the most extreme form of child abandonment involving the killing of the child. It focuses on case studies of mothers of these children. The article is extracted from a large study conducted towards the end of 1995 involving abandoned children, mothers who abandoned their children, the police (who fetch abandoned children) and professionals and para-professionals working for child welfare institutions. To assess the socio-economic conditions of those mothers, ethnographic methods (i.e. case studies, in-depth interviews) as well as secondary data from different institutions have been utilised.