VANCOUVER, B.C. – New mothers who want to give up their infants because they face addiction, poverty, or are still just children themselves, will soon be able to walk away after anonymously dropping their babies off at a Vancouver hospital.
St. Paul’s Hospital will launch its Angel’s Cradle program, the first of its kind in Canada, on May 3. The downtown hospital said Thursday the initiative is designed to provide a safe haven for troubled mothers who can’t care for their infants.
Mothers will be able to place their babies inside a bassinet in the emergency department and leave. The cradle, which sits in a secure area, is equipped with an alarm that lets hospital staff know 30 seconds after the baby has been put inside.
Neither hospital employees nor Vancouver police will make any effort to track the mother down.
Dr. Geoffrey Cundiff, who works in the hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology department and helped design Angel’s Cradle, said he doesn’t believe it will lead to more children being abandoned.
“I think that there’s a sizable subset of people who, when they first hear about it, it seems wrong because the whole idea of a mother abandoning a baby is hard to take,” he said.
“But I think when they actually stop and think about what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to make sure that there’s an alternative for the baby, I think that it’s usually well received.”
Providence Health Care, a faith-based organization that operates the hospital, said infant abandonment is a fact of life and this initiative provides a better option than simply leaving a baby outside, or worse.
St. Paul’s has had abandoned infants before, including a three-to four-hour old newborn that was found wrapped in a towel and plastic bag. A newborn’s body was found in a Richmond, B.C., dump last February.
Once a health assessment on any infant left at St. Paul’s is complete, the baby will be placed in the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
If the mother later decides she wants her baby back, she has the option of contacting the ministry and arranging a meeting with social workers.
“We feel that women who are in this situation are part of our patient population and there is really no other resource for them that specifically allows them to remain anonymous and so we thought it was in our mission to provide this,” Cundiff said.
“Women who are in these circumstances, obviously, it must be a very difficult situation.”
Greg Smith, executive director of Vancouver-based Options for Sexual Health, previously known as Planned Parenthood, said his organization is firmly behind the Angel’s Cradle program.
“From our perspective, this is a good idea. Anything that supports the health of new babies and new mothers is good,” he said.
Like Cundiff, Smith said it’s unlikely the program will lead to a greater number of babies suddenly being abandoned.
“I don’t think that anybody will be less careful about their decisions on sexual health or sexuality just because the Angel’s Cradle is there,” he said.
Smith said mothers leaving their babies behind is very rare and when it does happen, it speaks to the extreme level of crisis in one’s life.
“I think we need to really appreciate what kind of crisis a woman is in to come to this decision,” he said.
“Having a baby can be overwhelming for anybody but if you’re young and not very capable in terms of looking after a baby and so on, then that becomes a very daunting prospect.”
Sarah Payne, coordinator at Sheway, a Downtown Eastside pregnancy outreach program that’s located just a couple of kilometres from St. Paul’s, said age isn’t the only obstacle new moms in the area might face. There’s also poverty and addiction.
Related posts:
- First-time mothers become most anxious when babies are five months …
- Chinese health officials say those who dumped dead babies near river will be punished
- 2 million babies and mothers die at birth worldwide each year
- Boy stuck by needles released from hospital
- Record-holding 19.2-pound baby boy draws crowds to Indonesian hospital
Posted in 
