When the alarm goes off at Jikei Hospital in southwest Japan, nurses climb a spiral staircase to collect the abandoned newborns as quickly as possible in the medical center’s “baby box,” the only one in the country.
This Catholic hospital in Kumamoto, on the island of Kyushu, created this system in 2007 that allows a baby to be abandoned anonymously. And it offers other services such as B. An IDfree birth program, which is also unique in Japan.
These initiatives have drawn criticism from the medical center, but its chief medical officer, Takeshi Hasuda, argues they act as a vital safety net.
“There are women who are ashamed and very afraid” that they have become pregnant, “that they have done something terrible,” she told AFP.
“A place like ours that doesn’t turn anyone away (…) is very important” for these needy young mothers.
When the alarm sounds, the nurses try to reach the “baby box” in less than a minute, decorated with a pair of storks and equipped with a small, carefully prepared bed.
“If the mothers are still there, we suggest that they tell their story,” says Saori Taminaga, a hospital worker.
The team tries to ensure the mothers’ health by listening and guiding them, and encouraging them to leave information that will allow the child to later learn their origins.
2 of 4 Jikei Hospital staff showing the inside of the “baby box” — Photo: Philip FONG / AFP
Jikei Hospital staff shows the inside of the “baby box” (Photo: Philip FONG / AFP)
Abandoned baby crates have existed around the world for centuries, surviving today in places like Germany, Belgium, South Korea, and the United States.
His return to some European countries in the early 2000s was criticized by the United Nations, which felt it “violated the child’s right to be known and cared for by his parents”.
However, Jikei Hospital believes its box is a means to prevent child abuse in Japan. In the country, police recorded 27 abandoned children in 2020, and 57 children died as victims of abuse in 2019.
After consultation with the doctor. Hasuda, some foster children are “the offspring of prostitution, rape or incest,” and their mothers have nothing to turn to.
A total of 161 babies and young children have been abandoned in Jikei since 2007.
However, according to Chiaki Shirai, a Shizuoka University professor and an expert on reproductive issues and adoption, the system continues to struggle with acceptance in Japan, largely because of a traditional view of the family.
The country uses a family registry system that records a family’s births, deaths, and marriages across generations. This pillar of the administrative apparatus also shapes the view of the family structure.
This “fixes in Japanese society the notion that whoever has given birth to a child must raise it,” to the point where children are almost considered the “property” of their parents, Shirai explains.
“Abandoned children whose registration indicates that they have no family are severely stigmatized,” he adds.
3 of 4 belongings of one of the children left in the ‘baby box’ in 2007 — Photo: Philip FONG / AFP
Belongings of one of the children left in the ‘baby box’ in 2007 — Photo: Philip FONG / AFP
Despite the anonymity the system offers, child protection services often attempt to locate the families of abandoned children in Jikei.
In this way, about 80% of them discovered the identity of their family and 20% found their parents or relatives.
The hospital also offers an obstetrics phone service, which receives thousands of calls annually, and an unidentified childbirth program that aims to eliminate unsupervised home births.
Although little has been done to date (only two births have taken place this way), this system has not received unanimous approval either, and the government has not wanted to legalize it without outlawing it.
Chiaki Shirai points out that women who use the baby box or give birth without an ID card are often criticized for not having chosen other alternatives such as abortion, which is legal in Japan but very expensive.
Society prefers to blame women, and their “motivation” to sympathize with them or help them “is little or nonexistent,” laments Dr. Hasuda.
4 of 4 A Jikei Hospital staff member shows a location known as the ‘baby box’ Photo: Philip FONG / AFP
A Jikei Hospital staff member demonstrates a location known as the “Babybox” (Photo: Philip FONG / AFP)