The baby hatch in Einsiedeln opened on May 9, 2001.
Keystone-SDA
Exactly 25 years ago on Saturday, Switzerland’s first baby hatch opened at Einsiedeln Hospital in canton Schwyz. Since then, 31 newborns have been left anonymously at eight locations in the country, said the Swiss Organisation for Mother and Child.
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Baby hatches in Switzerland came in response to the discovery of two dead infants in 1999, the foundation explained on the anniversary. One baby was found on the banks of Lake Sihl near Einsiedeln, canton Schwyz, and another in Margarethen Park in Basel.
The first such facility, the baby hatch in Einsiedeln, opened on May 9, 2001. According to the foundation, it was one of the first ten such hatches in the world.
Baby hatches are intended to offer women in extreme distress a way to place their child anonymously in medically supervised care. The mother places the newborn in a heated cot, which is accessible via a hatch on the outer wall of a hospital. A silent alarm alerts hospital staff after three minutes.
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A midwife receives the child. The baby is cared for and placed with foster parents after a few days. Adoption is possible at the earliest one year after placement. The biological parents have the right to reclaim their child until the adoption is finalised.
According to the foundation, the statistics support the positive outcome: in the five years prior to the opening of the first baby hatch, from 1997 to 2001, 13 abandoned or killed newborns were recorded in Switzerland. In the past five years, from 2021 to 2026, there has not been a single such case.
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Half of the mothers who placed their child in a baby hatch came forward voluntarily afterwards, the report adds. They either reclaimed the child or left information about its origins.
There are currently eight baby hatches in Switzerland, located in Basel, Bellinzona, Bern, Davos, Olten (canton Solothurn), Sion, Zollikerberg (canton Zurich) and Schwyz. The baby hatch in Schwyz replaced the one in Einsiedeln in 2025.
Translated from German with AI/gw
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