China’s health authorities overwhelmed by abandoned babies

“CHINA’s controversial baby hatch scheme, where parents can secretly dump unwanted children, is being rolled back after thousands of infants were left behind, overwhelming health authorities and severely straining central hospital services.

The first hatch opened at the Shijiazhuang Social Welfare Institute, in the capital of the Hebei province outside Beijing, three years ago to help stem the growing number of babies who were dumped or found dead as a result of China’s one-child policy.

A further 24 were opened in 10 provinces across China after more than 400 babies were found abandoned in the hospital-run facilities in the first year of operation. It has been estimated that the hatches have taken on at least 1500 babies over the past three years.

The hatches are 8sq m rooms attached to hospitals that provide a crib and monitoring device. Parents press a button to alert nurses to the arrival of a child.

Most of the abandoned babies are a second child or disabled and are dumped late at night as the parents try to escape identification.

The China Children’s Welfare and Adoption Centre said almost all the babies were sick and the hatches provided an improved chance of life.

“The main reason for abandonment is that parents cannot afford high treatment fees,” it said.

“From the beginning, the building of baby hatch is controversial. There is one opinion it is encouraging the abandonment of babies and it has helped trigger a tide. The other opinion is it provides a safe platform and timely aid to the kids.”

Photographs in state media published this year prompted outrage in China after a boy, aged about 10, was shown letting himself into one of the baby hatches in Guangzhou after he was left outside the facility by his mother who claimed she could not afford to raise him.

A facility in Guangzhou, one of the largest, was forced to close after just two months in March after it received more than 262 unwanted children in the first few weeks.

Of the children left in the hatch, 110 had cerebral palsy, 39 had Down syndrome and 32 had congenital heart disease. “The number of babies we have ­received is much higher than in other parts of the country over the same period,” hatch director Xu Jiu told Xinhua earlier this year.

“Parents bring their ill babies to big cities in the hope of having them cured. But many just end up abandoning them.”

The hatches in China highlight China’s lack of social welfare services, especially for parents of disabled children. The country has an estimated 10,000 social affairs workers for 100,000 abandoned children, but the government has announced plans to increase the number of workers to two million in the next few years.

The one-child policy is slowly being relaxed to offset the falling birthrate. Under the new plans, when one of the parents is an only child the couple will now legally be able to have two children.

China also dramatically tightened its adoption laws, especially for overseas couples who now have to wait up to seven years to adopt.

Shijiazhuang Social Welfare Institute administrator Ma Ning said the hatch had reduced the number of babies who were dumped and left to die in areas surrounding the hospital. Most hatches are linked to state-run ­orphanages.

“I have worked here over 10 years, and before parents just dropped babies in grasses or construction sites nearby our institute because they were afraid to be seen,” Ms Ma said.

“I personally picked up several babies. We used to find baby skeletons in grasses because nobody noticed the babies in time.

“We have got over 400 kids, among which 300 survive. At first my colleagues checked it every two hours. But sometimes, for kids needing emergency treatment, it was not often enough.

“Then we had to set an alarm in the hatch, as long as the door is open, people in the duty room will know.”

Ms Ma said a growing number of children left at the institute were sick and required urgent medical treatment.

“All of these kids are disabled. In recent years, more and more kids with HIV and syphilis were abandoned here, so we have to ­introduce special equipment to test them first before we take them,” she said.”

China’s health authorities overwhelmed by abandoned babies [The Australian 8/20/14 by Scott Murdoch]

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