Hope's Cradle delivers a safe, legal, anonymous baby to Calgary

While reported cases of baby abandonment are rare, they're not unknown – and one Calgary charity is working to create an option parents may never have.

Opened April 15, Cradle of Hope for Gems, located in the Children's Cottage Society's Child and Family Services Building in Montgomery, is Calgary's first baby drop-off.

Located in the lobby near the main entrance at 1804 Home Road NW, it allows parents to safely and legally drop off their babies in a secure location with 24/7 supervision.

“Any parent looking for an anonymous version of the hub crib goes up to the crib, opens the door, and inside there's a packet that gives them lots of mental health resources, as well as an instructional letter to send back. With their last thoughts about their baby if they want,” said Jordan Guildford, CEO and founder of Gems for Gems.

“But the baby is removed within minutes of closing the door. The alarm system works around the clock, so it is constantly monitored. “There's a camera inside the crib that looks into the crib and that's to make sure that the people watching the camera can see if the baby is in any trouble.”

The door alarm also alerts 911, which then dispatches EMS to take the baby to a local hospital for care. There, the child undergoes a thorough background check before being taken into the custody of Child Protective Services.

Surrendering a child has no legal consequences when the child is free from intentional abuse or harm.

Mental health support for parents includes psychological support from Registered Psychologist Nicole Bullock through Gems for Gems.

“His whole job is to test the woman so she doesn't re-victimize before looking for resources. We're also very excited to be partnering with Children's Cottage on this particular site, as they also support mothers and are non-discriminatory,” said Guildford.

“I think it's a very important thing because it's so easy to vilify these women, but we don't see it that way. We want the community to understand that we can't understand what they're going through.”

Provides choice in impossible situations

Guildford said Cradle of Hope gives parents the choice between giving up their baby and allowing their child to live, and placement at the Children's Cottage Society does just that.

“We are sure that we are racing with garbage cans, alleys, ditches. It doesn't matter to us whether it's two minutes or 10 minutes, as long as that baby's life is saved and protected. This is important for us,” he said.

Parents can get their babies back within 30 days if they change their mind, Guildford said.

“The beautiful thing about Cradle of Hope is that it protects both sides of the equation. So, yes, while the baby's life is protected, the mother's life is also protected,” he said.

“The cradle of hope means that the mother has not committed a crime. This means that when he comes back, he doesn't come back after the eight ball. She will come back with every right to look at her case and show that whatever the risk to her baby is now on a different level and she can restore her custody as needed.”

Guildford said there can be a variety of circumstances that lead parents to temporarily use a crib.

“Right now, we've developed these cribs to address the abandonment issues that lead to infant deaths. But we really hope to see these cribs used on a much larger scale. “I want anyone who knows that their child is in danger to know that they can put their baby in Cradle of Hope and have 30 days to get it back,” she said.

“There are situations like human trafficking, abuse, and many other things that change the game for people. We often hear of babies being killed by someone's ex or someone's new boyfriend or any of those situations and if they knew there was a safe place for that baby, even if it was just for a short period of time, it could have been prevented. »

Little Eve's short life is memorable and unchanging

Lisa Garrisen, director of programs for the Children's Cottage Society, said the 2017 death of an abandoned baby in Calgary, later named Eve, left a lasting impression on the organization that future tragedies can be prevented.

“We started talking about what we wanted to do. We knew we were building this building in Montgomery, so we thought we could combine those two things,” Garrisen said.

“At Children's Cottage, we really believe in keeping families alive, but we also know that there are situations that are dangerous, unsupportive, where parents are in really terrible situations and unable to care for their babies. If they don't have natural supports, if they don't have resources, if they don't have any other solution, we wanted to give them an option that would keep their baby safe.”

Garrisen also said they want to protect the anonymity of parents who choose to surrender their babies rather than give them up.

“It will be the difference between life and death for the baby. It also means that parents can make safe choices that secure their future. So we thought, why not do it?” He said.

Dave Sweet, a former homicide detective with the Calgary Police Service and now chair of the Gems for Gems board, said it was an important day for Calgary because it changes the options available to parents.

“The first option was to deliver the child safely, and we've seen that in a number of different situations over the last 15 years of my career,” he said.

Sweet was one of the detectives who investigated Bala Hawa's death as part of the Calgary Police Service Task Force.

“From this experience and many times before, the idea for the Cradle of Hope program was born in Calgary. The most important thing to take away from Baby Eve's story is that you are never too young to make a difference in the world, and opportunities to make a difference in our society are all around us. We just need to find them,” he said.

“Baby Eve lived a very short time, maybe a few hours, but her life and impact were enormous.”

Statistics show that other jurisdictions have seen dramatic declines in infant mortality

While Canada's infant mortality statistics are low — two in 2022, two in 2021 and six in 2021 — Sweet said the statistics are just the tip of the iceberg of what's lost.

“One of the things that I believe happens in most of these cases is women decide that it might be an unwanted pregnancy, but they're too far along. They don't have a lot of options, and it looks like giving up is being considered,” he said.

“You will also see that the pregnancy is hidden. There's no attempt to go to the doctor to get any help before the baby is born, so these babies are born and no one knows they're there.”

According to him, the chances of finding one of these babies are by chance.

“This is the tip of the iceberg, and I think it's a big problem. I think cribs, if they're used that way, they can open up a little bit of a real problem that we might have in our community that we don't know we have,” Sweet said.

Canada has very few baby surrogates compared to other countries. By comparison, in the United States, all 50 states have laws and sites that allow for baby surrenders.

According to studies examining infant homicide deaths between 2008 and 2017, safe-surrender laws reduced the rate of first-day homicides — before babies are killed on their first day of life — from 222 per 100,000 people. In 1999, the enactment of these laws reached 74 during the study period.

The study found a significant difference between first-day homicide rates, often associated with infant concealment and abandonment, compared to post-day one child abuse and neglect.

According to Sweet, Gems for Gems' goal was to have cribs in all four squares of the city and eventually across the country.

“In order to accept this, we need a host agency, a group that is dedicated and caring to the concept of a cradle like a children's cottage. But I know that these organizations exist,” he said.