Norwegian hospital to equip babies with anti-theft alarms pital to equip babies with anti-theft alarms

[Ban Hammer 13,347]

OSLO (AFP) - A Norwegian hospital said Monday it was planning to equip all newborn babies with anti-theft alarms to protect them from kidnappings and help avoid identity mix-ups.

"The main reason is that we want to emphasise security," Erik Normann, head of the Akershus University Hospital near Oslo told AFP.

"There was a period in which Norway experienced several infant kidnappings and that is something we want to avoid," he said.

The alarm system consists of two small chips, one attached to a bracelet clasped around the baby's ankle as soon as it is born and the other stuck on the mother's bracelet.

When the two chips are separated by a certain distance the alarm is set off. If a woman tries to leave with a baby who is not her own, or if someone tries to rip the bracelet off an infant, the hospital doors automatically lock shut and the hospital elevators grind to a halt.

The Akershus hospital, which has one of Norway's largest maternity wards with some 4,200 babies delivered there each year, has never experienced an infant kidnapping, Normann said.

The hospital, which will be the first in the Scandinavian country to implement the "inexpensive" system, has decided to begin using the alarms when it moves to a new location on October 1.

Before then, the new system must receive the approval of the hospital board.

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Edited December 22, 2008 by charles!

[mawilson 2,133]

What about Norwegian hos?

[almaty 19]

[Sister Fracas 5]

If I'm not mistaken, hospitals over here do that already.

[lucyrich 20]

This isn't that unsual. I know the hospital where our daughter was born had a similar system. I don't believe it was tied to the mother/baby separation distance, but if the baby made an unauthorized trip outside the maternity ward, an alarm would sound. They also had various procedures to avoid accidentally swapping babies. Our daughter had a couple of small birthmarks that we noticed in the first few minutes after birth, and they're still there, so I think we took the right one home.

It's sad that alarm systems like that would be necessary.

[garya505 2]

Our baby had a little ID tag on his cord stump until we left the hospital, and we all 3 had bracelets with matching numbers. Each time the baby was taken from, or returned to, the room the staff would check all 3 ID bracelets.

[caybee 21]

I've been wishing people would use these for other reasons. There was another story yesterday where a man thought he'd dropped his infant off at the daycare and realized after work that he hadn't. A separation alarm like that would save a lot of heartache.