Overburdened baby hatches close down

 

A father, dressed in raincoat and mask to remain anonymous, kneels beside his daughter before leaving her at a baby hatch in this 2014 file photo. [Photo/CFP]

Many "Safe havens", facilities set up to give abandoned babies a shelter, across China have closed down because too many babies, most of them with disabilities and illness, were left at the facilities since they were opened, reported Beijing News on Wednesday.

The first such "safe haven" in Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, has been relocated to a welfare center for children where the babies will receive better care. Moreover, the facility will limit the number of abandoned infants it takes in, and only accept orphans and local abandoned babies, the report said.

Since China's first baby hatch was put into use in 2011, 32 such shelters have been opened across the country, providing care for more than 1,400 abandoned babies.

But many of the baby hatches soon found they were overwhelmed with abandoned babies.

Guangzhou Children Welfare Center set up a "safe haven" in January 2014, and it was forced to shut down the facility two months later because it was unable to support more babies after 262 were left at the shelter during that period.

The same challenge also faced the "safe haven" in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, which, during the first three months since its operation, received more than 140 babies, the equivalent of the total amount of the previous year.

Shortages of nurses and funds are the main difficulty baby hatches face, said an insider.

"We are short-staffed, but it's hard to recruit new nurses as the pay is not attractive enough," said an anonymous staffer of Xiamen Children Welfare Center.

While baby hatches in large cities are overwhelmed with abandoned babies, some facilities in less developed areas are receiving much fewer unwanted babies.

The baby hatch in Tongren, a city in Southwest China's Guizhou province, only received several babies each year since it was opened, partly as a result of its remote location.