Baby Hatch at Waldfriede Hospital Closes After 25 Years

Waldfriede Hospital, a Seventh-day Adventist health-care institution in Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany, stopped operating its baby hatch in March 2025. The reason, institution leaders said, is the positive experience with the legal regulation of confidential births introduced in 2014.

The so-called baby hatches are small warming beds in which desperate mothers who want to remain anonymous can place their unwanted babies. The submission takes place without witnesses. In the past, the mother would put the baby through a flap, close it, and after a short time an alarm would be automatically triggered.

The child would then be taken out of the bed by the hospital’s medical staff and given immediate medical care. After the examination, the baby would first be taken into care by the Youth Welfare Office and later placed with a suitable foster or adoption family. The birth mother had two months to reclaim her baby.

No Longer Up-to-Date

Since no child has been placed into the baby hatch of Waldfriede Hospital since 2014, hospital leaders decided after detailed consultation with the hospital management, pastoral care, midwives, nursing staff, and doctors to discontinue the service, which has been in place since 2000.

“The baby hatch is no longer up-to-date,” said Bernd Quoss, chief executive officer of Waldfriede Hospital. “There are better opportunities today. The value of the confidential birth for both the child and the mother is higher than the continued existence of the baby hatch, since not only the child but above all the mother can now be provided with medical and nursing care by competent staff.”

The Confidential Birth

According to the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), the law on confidential births came into force on May 1, 2014, and offers pregnancy counseling centers, youth welfare offices, hospitals, and midwife services. These all involve a legally secure basis for action.

“The confidential birth is an offer of help for pregnant women who want to keep their pregnancy secret,” officers explained. Every confidential birth is always preceded by a consultation in which the mother’s data is recorded once. Upon the child’s 16th birthday, the child receives the right to view this data. This itakes into account the child’s legal right to know his or her own parents.

History of the Baby Hatch

On April 8, 2000, the Hamburg Sternipark Association opened the first baby hatch in Germany. The occasion was the discovery of three killed newborns in Hamburg in 1999. Since the early 2000s, in exceptional situation, mothers in Berlin have been able to relinguish their newborns in baby hatches. Several baby hatches have been set up across the city.

From the introduction of the baby hatch in Berlin in 2000 through December 2024, a total of 112 babies have been rescued. However, it requires a much effort to maintain the baby hatches and protect them from vandalism, institution leaders explained.

Children of the Heart

Gabriele Stangl, the founder of the baby hatch at Waldfriede Hospital, together with a dedicated team, created the world’s first baby hatch in a clinic—against much resistance from authorities and politicians. She wanted to prevent newborns from being abandoned or killed and to assist burdened mothers. For many years, Stangl, a pastor, defended the ethically controversial project. In 2023, she published a book about her experiences titled Herzenskinder (Children of the Heart).

Waldfriede Hospital

The nonprofit Waldfriede Hospital in Berlin-Zehlendorf is a Seventh-day Adventist health-care institution. Waldfriede is an academic teaching hospital of the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin and has been certified several times according to legal quality parameters and has already received many awards for its medical and nursing quality.

Every year, Waldfriede treats about 15,000 inpatients and 120,000 outpatients. The hospital is a member of the Diakonisches Werk Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz, the German Evangelical Hospital Association, and a cooperation partner of AdventHealth in the U.S.

The original version of this story was posted by Adventistische Pressedienst.