THREE newborn babies defied death when they were born in life-threatening circumstances.

The unrelated incidents were:

• A baby who fell into a toilet pit in an accidental birth that happened while her mother was relieving herself;
• A baby who was dumped in a dustbin after birth; and
• A baby who was born while her mother was relieving herself. She was wrapped in newspapers and dumped.

On Saturday police had to demolish a toilet to retrieve a newborn baby. The child is safe at home with her 20-year old mother.

"I realised there was blood streaming while I was relieving myself in the toilet and did not know what it was all about," the baby's mom, Bridgette Vukeya, said yesterday.

She said to her knowledge she was seven months pregnant and that she was only told by nurses after giving birth at the Elim Hospital outside Louis Trichardt in Limpopo that she was nine months pregnant.

Vukeya gave birth to her first child, a boy, in 2008 to the same man who impregnated her.

She said had it not been for the neighbours who came when she screamed for help after noticing blood, she would probably not have known she had given birth.

The incident happened on Saturday at Riverplats outside Makhado.

The second incident happened at the Makhushane village outside Namakgale, also in Limpopo, when a 26-year old woman gave birth to a healthy baby girl while she was relieving herself in her bedroom.

It is said that the woman was afraid to go to the outside toilet as she was afraid of the dark. The child was born on newspapers.

Limpopo police spokesman, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi confirmed the the incident saying the woman gave birth to a healthy baby girl while she was relieving herself in her bedroom on top of a pile of newspapers.

Mulaudzi said the woman was alone in the house when she felt she had a runny stomach and used newspapers and cloth to relieve herself. According to Mulaudzi the baby was born and landed on top of the newspapers.

Mulaudzi said the incident allegedly took place early on Sunday morning and the mother was arrested the following day after the baby was found abandoned at the veranda of a house some kilometres away from the village.

"The woman was spotted by members of the public on Sunday morning carrying a bag. Following a tip off, the woman was later arrested after she confessed to the police that the baby was hers.

"The woman told us that at the time of the incident she was not aware that the baby was due since she had never gone to a clinic for a check-up. She said the previous week she asked her mother about her delivery dates but the mother also had no idea. She said she abandoned the baby because she was afraid that her mother would chase her away from home."

Police identified the woman as Evony Setagane of Maune in Makhushane outside Phalaborwa.

Yesterday Setagane appeared in the Namakgale magistrate's court where she was granted R500 bail and the case was remanded to October 21.

In the third incident, a bouncing baby was found in a plastic bag in a dustbin in Musina on Thursday and is being cared for at Musina Hospital. The nurses have since named him Nyimelo ("Situation" in Tshivenda).

The baby was found at the Beit Bridge border post.

Warrant Officer Peter Mudau of the Musina SAPS said the police were still looking for the mother of the baby.

"We received the shocking news that a baby has been discovered in a dustbin and we rushed there.

"He was found covered in a plastic bag and we thank God that he did not suffocate. We took the baby to Messina Hospital."