One baby saved in 2017 thanks to Covenant’s Angel Cradle program
Two city hospitals offer place where parents can drop off unwanted infants
Covenant Health saved its first abandoned newborn baby this year through its safe haven program.
The baby was anonymously dropped off within the past six months at the Grey Nuns Hospital in Mill Woods. This is the first baby to be provided with a safe haven through the Angel Cradle program, which opened in May 2013.
Gordon Self, vice-president of the ethics department at Covenant Health, said the newborn was healthy. The Ministry of Child and Family Services took over once the baby was discharged by the hospital.
“What we’ve come to understand is that there are a lot of psychosocial issues that are alive in the moms and dads who have to make this very difficult decision. Usually, it is the disbelief that they are able to care for a baby at this time,” said Christopher De Bono of Angel’s Cradle Vancouver, the first initiative of its kind to open in Canada.
The latest case of an abandoned baby in Alberta took place in Calgary where a newborn was found dead in a parking lot on Christmas Eve.
Calgary has no venues for parents to drop off an unwanted child.
What we’re trying to do is provide an additional option for people. Even if it’s only used once, then it’s been worth it
“What we’re trying to do is provide an additional option for people. Even if it’s only used once, then it’s been worth it,” Self said in a previous interview about the program’s one-year anniversary.
There are no ongoing expenditures to maintain the initiative — the only costs were the initial fees to install the depository system.
Newborns can be dropped off between the doors marked with the Angel Cradle sign. An alarm goes off 60 seconds after the baby has been left, giving the mother or father time to protect their identity.
“A person who finds themselves abandoning their baby in a moment of desperation is also a human being in need of help, and we can’t lose sight of their needs either,” Self said Thursday.
Police have agreed not to get involved because the babies are being dropped off at a facility that can take care of them.
Covenant Health, the Catholic-based organization, runs two hospitals in Edmonton that house Angel Cradle programs. The other site is at the Misericordia Hospital in the west end.
The program is based on one at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver where two babies have been rescued since it opened in 2010.