Newborn left at Kaišiadorys baby hatch is safe, officials say

A newborn girl left at the baby hatch at Kaišiadorys Hospital is safe and being cared for by medical staff, a child protection official told LRT.

Deivydas Aidukas, head of the Kaunas County division of the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service, said police notified child protection officials about the baby. The infant was left in a special cradle at the hospital’s baby hatch, where parents can leave a child anonymously.

TV3 News first reported that the girl may have been brought to the hatch on October 2. The broadcaster said she was full-term, had been washed and warmly dressed, and weighed about 3.6 kilograms.

Aidukas said authorities hope a child’s mother or both parents will return, but police do not seek or punish parents who leave a baby safely at a hatch. Parents can change their minds and seek to reclaim the child within three months. A DNA test would be used to confirm parenthood, and officials would arrange psychological and other support if parents came forward.

If no parents come forward, the child is placed with caregivers once medically ready to leave hospital. The service said it pays particular attention to the needs of infants in their first weeks and months.

Lithuania has 10 baby hatches. The Kaišiadorys hatch, established last year, is the country’s newest. The baby is the second child left at a hatch in Lithuania this year. Since the first hatch opened in 2009, 99 children have been left at the country’s hatches; 16 were later reclaimed by parents or one parent, and 78 were adopted.