Babyfensters

EDITED on 31 January to add the address of the sole Babyfenster in Switzerland:

Regionalspital Einsiedeln
Spitalstrasse 28
8840 Einsiedeln.

On Saturday, a days-old baby girl was found in a shopping center in a town near here. This sort of thing is quite unusual in Switzerland. She was, according to the information the police released, healthy in appearance (though her umbilical cord had not been professionally cut and dressed, indicating an unattended birth), clean, dressed and diapered, wrapped in a blanket, and bedded down in a shopping cart which was left in an indoor shopping center during daylight hours. It's unlikely the child was alone for even an hour before a shopper found her, as I'm sure the mother planned. (It's of course possible that both parents were involved in this decision, but the whole situation points to a mother with few if any social support resources. I suspect a young mother, quite possibly Papierlos - that is, undocumented - who attempted, possibly successfully, to hide the pregnancy altogether.) As far as abandonments go, this one was carefully done, designed to ensure a good outcome for the baby. I personally see love there. Desperation and fear, certainly, but tenderness as well.

This has renewed discussion in Switzerland of two options for women - particularly Papierlos - who deliver children they can't, won't, for whatever reason, keep: anonymous birth and Babyfensters. Of the two, anonymous birth is far more controversial. It's exactly what it sounds like. You can give birth, in a hospital, without registering your identity. This is not currently permitted in Switzerland (it is allowed in France, where about 560 children a year are born to anonymous mothers). In Switzerland you need the following documents when you check into the hospital or arrange an attended home birth: if married, your Familienbüchlein (the family book where all your official records are noted) and Niederlassungsbewilligung (a certificate of domicile); if unmarried, just the Niederlassungsbewilligung and that of your partner if he's in the picture. Foreigners giving birth in Switzerland need the following additional documents: your residency permit and passport and those of your partner, and your marriage certificate. All patients need to provide health insurance information and a blood group certificate, which you should have received during your prenatal care. This is why I suspect the Steffisburg mother is undocumented - if you're undocumented, there is no way to have an attended birth without exposing yourself. I have no idea if some OBs or midwifes might look the other way on this at a home birth, but there is simply no way a hospital could. They would have no choice but to contact the Fremdenpolizei (immigration). Now in an anonymous birth, none of these documents would be collected. The mother could have a safe, attended delivery and the baby would be immediately in the care of nurses. You can see the trouble with an anonymous birth, however. There is no way to protect the father's rights, and, according to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have a right to know their origins. The child of an anonymous birth could never trace her birth parents or know her national or ethnic background.

Less controversial are Babyfensters (link only available in German, French or Italian), specially designed baby drop-off windows at hospitals. Here's how it works (if you open the link above and click on "Wie gehe ich vor?" you can view a series of staged photos that show how it works. No language skills required!): You open the window from the outside and deposit the baby in a waiting crib, which is heated to 37 Celcius. You can leave a toy with the baby, or a letter giving it a name, or nothing at all. After two minutes (enough time to allow the parent to leave unobserved) an alarm is activated which alerts the nurses in Labor and Delivery. The baby is then brought to the nursury where it is examined and cared for along with the other newborns. A foster family is found, who can adopt the child is the mother has not returned for the child after a year.

There is, however, exactly one Babyfenster in Switzerland, and it's not near Steffisburg. So the mother left the baby in a shopping center - a good choice to try to make sure that the least possible harm would come to the baby before somebody found it and called the police, but nevertheless risky. A Babyfenster would have been a much safer alternative, had one been available. The Steffisburg baby is currently being cared for in a regional hospital. She has been appointed a guardian, will be given a name and a birthday (both of which will remain private) and will be placed in a Kinderheim with a nursury for three months, in the hopes that the mother will come for her. After that, she will be placed with an adoptive family (over thirty families have already applied) who will foster her for nine months before the adoption will be finalized.

I don't know the parents of the Steffisburg baby, I don't know their burdens, and I'm not going to judge them for this. Whoever left that baby went to some lengths to ensure that it would not come to harm before it was found, and there's maturity in that, and basic decency and, yes, love. I don't judge the mother. I can't. What do I know about her life? I can, however, judge the Parliment for rejecting a 2002 proposal to open more Babyfensters.

And I do.