Every year, two hundred mothers in Spain renounce their baby in a hospital's delivery room. The baby is taken to one room and the mother to another. A very hard scene. But not all women who give up their son do so in a delivery room. Some have it in the street and leave it lying in the open as soon as it is born or put it in a garbage can, while others decide to leave it days after returning from the hospital. Virtually every week we hear news about the abandonment of babies. Some survive and others, unfortunately, do not.
I think that something will contribute to change the situation new measure taken by the Community of Madrid. At least it will help save the lives of some unwanted babies by their mother, and even to avoid the unjust death of a single newborn, it is already an effective measure.
It will be launched, predictably before the end of the year, a emergency system to pick up abandoned children at the place indicated by the mother by calling 012 or 112 every day of the year and at all hours. The woman's identity will be kept secret (only the Civil Registry, the judge and the child will know when she is of legal age) and the baby will then be delivered for adoption.
The advantages that I see to measure: on the one hand, it guarantees the safety of the baby, the most important. On the other, it gives impunity to the mother to get rid of her baby, since it is usually fear that motivates such a cruel decision. On the other hand, these babies, instead of dying in parks or in garbage cans, will make many couples happy who swell the waiting lists for adoptions in Spain. The essential: create campaigns to inform women during pregnancy, especially the profile of women most likely to commit abandonment.
The measure is very similar to the mailboxes to deliver babies that exist in some countries, but instead of going to deposit it to a neutral place it is done through a phone call. In all cases, the intention is to ensure the safety of the baby that is the main thing.
