Building a haven with angel cradles
Two infants were abandoned in Canada since Vancouver built country’s first baby box
Used around the world, a small door with a cradle compartment tucked inside is an option of last resort for mothers unable or unwilling to care for their newborns.
The boxes that allow mothers to anonymously and safely abandon their babies are known by several names — angel cradles, baby boxes and baby hatches.
In Canada, two infants are known to have been abandoned in the seven years since the country’s first angel cradle became available at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. Outside of angel cradles, abandoning a child under the age of 10 is an indictable offence under the Canadian Criminal Code.
The United States, on the other hand, has expansive safe haven laws that allow newborns to be safely surrendered at specific locations. As of 2017, more than 3,000 infants have been given up across the U.S., according to the Chicago-based Save Abandoned Babies Foundation.
Dr. Geoffrey Cundiff, regional head of obstetrics and gynecology for Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, said different regulations along with Canada’s “much stronger social safety net” contributes to the discrepancy.
“I think it’s the accessibility,” said Ellen Campbell, CEO and founder of Abuse Hurts, of the difference in abandonments in the U.S. versus Canada.
“They just make it so easy for an ambulance to come pick a woman up, or she can go to a police station or a fire hall,” Campbell said.
Two babies have been left at St. Paul’s Hospital’s angel cradle in Vancouver since it was installed in 2010. Covenant Health in Edmonton opened two angel cradles at Grey Nuns Community Hospital and Misericordia Community Hospital in May 2013. Neither has been used.
“If it’s never used, that’s fine,” said Gordon Self, vice-president of mission, ethics and spirituality at Covenant Health.
“Because what we want to have happen is that if people who feel they can’t come forward, for whatever reason, to remind people that there’s a really good existing safety net; where if people can get access to help, that’s preferable. However, if they can’t, then at least there’s this fail-safe or stopgap measure.”
In the U.S., the Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization is the driving force behind implementing baby drawers and boxes in Indiana and Arizona. Monica Kelsey, founder and president of the non-profit, said 10 babies were put into drawers and eight were surrendered at locations with boxes.
All 50 states have enacted safehaven legislation. Also known as Baby Moses laws, new mothers can relinquish their newborns to designated locations — such as hospitals, police stations and fire halls — anonymously and without fear of criminal prosecution.
Since 2001 in California, whose population is three million higher than Canada’s, 882 children have been safely surrendered and 176 were abandoned.
Self emphasized that angel cradles are a way of augmenting the existing safety net, not replacing it.
“If we can kind of get the appropriate resources to support people, that, to me, is what the angel cradle can help to raise awareness about.”