In Blansko, in the area of medical rescuers, a boy was placed in a baby box this past Monday. David is the eighth child this year and the 254th child overall to be placed in these special boxes in the Czech Republic. The founder of the Baby Box network, Ludvík Hess, conveyed this information to the Czech News Agency (ČTK).
David was found wrapped in a pale blue blanket with a white cap on his head. “I learned that it is a seemingly healthy boy with a treated umbilical cord, weighing 2500 grams. The rescuers took him to the Children’s Hospital in Brno because the Blansko hospital does not have a children’s department,” Hess reported.
The Blansko baby box started operating in March 2018, and two children have ended up in it. Hess added that on December 5, 87 baby boxes will be opened in South Moravia.
The baby boxes, also recognized as baby hatches, are designed to be a safe and anonymous way for mothers in desperate situations to leave their unwanted babies. These climate-controlled boxes are accessible from the outside of the building. When a child is placed in them, an alarm is activated to alert staff.
The boxes are positioned so people do not fear that someone will surprise them when placing the child. Critics of baby boxes argue that they oppose some articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, such as the right to a name, identity, nationality, and the right to know one’s parents. However, the primary aim of these baby boxes is to prevent the endangerment of the health and lives of unwanted children.