”We’ll take your child if no one else will. Without asking your name, without asking questions, without causing you pain,” the sign says.
It is a controversial advertisement offering some hope to German women who are unable, for whatever reason, to be mothers.
Pasted in public places like the Berlin underground, the ad depicts a pregnant woman with her face hidden by hair and a hand.
It supplies a telephone number and an Internet address for further details.
In three of the German capital’s hospitals, staff are waiting.
Away from prying eyes, mothers can leave their babies in good hands by simply opening a hatch fitted into a wall.
A small bed and blanket await the newborn child. Addressed to its mother, a letter in German, Polish, Turkish and Russian explaining what will be done with the child.
It also contains a means of recognising the child that the woman can use later to get news or to reclaim her baby.
If no request is made after eight weeks, the child is put up for adoption.
One minute after the baby is deposited, an alarm sounds and the hospital’s staff go into action.
The hatches are a controversial and desperate measure for desperate women.
Last year they were used four times. Each time, it appeared that the mothers had given birth without medical assistance as the umbilical cord had not been properly cut, says Ursula Kuenning, a coordinator at Berlin’s baby hatches programme, an initiative of
the Caritas and Diakonie Christian charities.
”Our deepest wish, naturally, is that the mothers seek out our help and then come back to look for their children,” she says.
The reality is somewhat different. Of the four cases, no one returned and even the letters addressed to the women were left untouched.
Germany’s first baby hatches appeared in the northern city of Hamburg in 1999, and since then some 30 hospitals across the country have begun providing similar services.
Some even allow women to give birth anonymously, which is technically illegal but tolerated. Normally doctors and midwives are required to register the names of women giving birth.
As a remedy, parliamentarians from across the political spectrum are supporting a bill drawn up under the leadership of Social Democrat deputy Harald Friese aimed at legalising anonymous births.
They say the law would help stop people killing unwanted babies.
Between 20 and 24 newborn babies are found dead in Germany each year.
However in their bill, the deputies ”estimate that the real number is between 800 and 1 000 each year.”
But the bill, which was due to be voted on June 7, has hit barriers.
The right of children to know where they come from should be respected above all, say detractors, who include the president of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, Angela Merkel.
They point to other European countries, like neighbouring France, where anonymous births have been legal since 1941.
They say the law would not stop the deaths of unwanted babies – France records around 12 cases each year – and would only leave the children rootless for the rest of their lives.
The German bill, then, is still on hold and while those behind it hope to see it passed before parliament breaks for the summer, few are optimistic.
Without legislation in their favour, women in trouble may find that the baby hatches are their best option. – Sapa-AFP