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A baby hatch is a place where people (typically mothers) can bring babies, usually newborn, and leave them anonymously in a safe place to be found and cared for. This kind of arrangement was common in the Middle Ages and in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the device was known as a foundling wheel. Foundling wheels were taken out of use in the late 19th century but a modern form, the baby hatch, began to be introduced again from 1952 and since 2000 has come into use in many countries, notably in Germany where there are around 100 hatches〔 and in Pakistan where there are over 300 today.〔 The hatch is known in German-speaking countries as a ''Babyklappe'' (baby hatch or flap), ''Babyfenster'' (baby window) or ''Babywiege'' (baby cradle);〔(The 'baby box' returns to Europe ), BBC News, 26 June 2012〕 in Italian as ''Culla per la vita'' (life cradle); in Sicilian as ''la ruota'' (the wheel); in Japanese as ; in Mandarin Chinese as 婴儿安全岛 () and in Polish as ''Okno życia'' (window of life) and in South Africa originally known as "the hole in the wall" by Door of Hope Children's Mission. The hatches are usually in hospitals, social centres, or churches, and consist of a door or flap in an outside wall which opens onto a soft bed, heated or at least insulated. Sensors in the bed alert carers when a baby has been put in it so that they can come and take care of the child. In Germany, babies are first looked after for eight weeks during which the mother can return and claim her child without any legal repercussions. If this does not happen, after eight weeks the child is put up for adoption. ==History== Baby hatches have existed in one form or another for centuries. The system was quite common in medieval times. From 1198 the first foundling wheels (''ruota dei trovatelli'') were used in Italy; Pope Innocent III decreed that these should be installed in homes for foundlings so that women could leave their child in secret instead of killing them, a practice clearly evident from the numerous drowned infants found in the River Tiber. A foundling wheel was a cylinder set upright in the outside wall of the building, rather like a revolving door. Mothers placed the child in the cylinder, turned it around so that the baby was inside the church, and then rang a bell to alert caretakers. This is the main theme of a historical novella set in nineteenth-century Sicily, ''The Lady of the Wheel'', by Angelo F. Coniglio. One example of this type which can still be seen today is in the ''Santo Spirito'' hospital at the Vatican City; this wheel was installed in medieval times and used until the 19th century. In Hamburg, Germany, a Dutch merchant set up a wheel (''Drehladen'') in an orphanage in 1709. It closed after only five years in 1714 as the number of babies left there was too high for the orphanage to cope with financially. Other wheels are known to have existed in Kassel (1764) and Mainz (1811). In France, foundling wheels (''tours d'abandon'', abandonment wheel) were introduced by Saint Vincent de Paul who built the first foundling home in 1638 in Paris. Foundling wheels were legalised in an imperial decree of January 19, 1811, and at their height there were 251 in France, according to author Anne Martin-Fugier. They were in hospitals such as the ''Hôpital des Enfants-Trouvés'' (Hospital for Foundling Children) in Paris. However, the number of children left there rose into the tens of thousands per year, as a result of the desperate economic situation at the time, and in 1863 they were closed down and replaced by "admissions offices" where mothers could give up their child anonymously but could also receive advice. The ''tours d'abandon'' were officially abolished in a law of June 27, 1904. Today in France, women are allowed to give birth anonymously in hospitals (''accouchement sous X'') and leave their baby there. In Brazil and Portugal, foundling wheels (''roda dos expostos '', literally "wheel for exposed ones") were also used after Queen Mary I proclaimed on May 24, 1783 that all towns should have a foundling hospital. One example was the wheel installed at the ''Santa Casa de Misericordia'' hospital in São Paulo on July 2, 1825. This was taken out of use on June 5, 1949, declared incompatible with the modern social system after five years' debate. A Brazilian film on this subject, ''Roda Dos Expostos'', directed by Maria Emília de Azevedo, won an award for "Best Photography" at the ''Festival de Gramado'' in 2001. In Britain and Ireland, foundlings were brought up in orphanages financed by the Poor Tax. The home for foundlings in London was established in 1741; in Dublin the Foundling Hospital and Workhouse installed a foundling wheel in 1730, as this excerpt from the Minute Book of the Court of Governors of that year shows: :''"Hu (Boulter) Armach, Primate of All-Ireland, being in the chair, ordered that a turning-wheel, or conveniency for taking in children, be provided near the gate of the workhouse; that at any time, by day or by night, a child may be layd in it, to be taken in by the officers of the said house."'' The foundling wheel in Dublin was taken out of use in 1826 when the Dublin hospital was closed because of the high death rate of children there. The first modern baby hatch was in South Africa in July 1999 and was installed by (Door of Hope Children's Mission )(Hole in the Wall) at a small mission church in Berea in Johannesburg. In 1999 the pastor, Cheryl Allen, and deacons learned with deep distress that a high number of newly born infants were abandoned. Pastor Allen realised that many of those desperate women and girls may well have acted differently if there had been an alternative. The church made a hole in their wall and a "baby bin" was installed allowing for mothers to leave their babies any time, day or night. The moment a baby is placed in the "baby bin" care workers on duty receive an electronic signal alerting them. The baby is taken in and the anonymity of the "donor" ensured. Baby M was the first baby that came through the "baby bin", arriving on 3 October 1999. To date (2013) Door of Hope has received over 1300 babies. 148 have come through the "baby bin" but most come from hospitals, police or community members and some babies have even been brought personally by the mothers. The second modern baby hatch in Germany was installed in the Altona district of Hamburg on 2000-04-11 after a series of cases in 1999 where children were abandoned and found dead from exposure. It consisted of a warm bed in which the child could be placed from outside the building. After a short delay to allow the person who left the child to leave anonymously, a silent alarm was set off which alerted staff. By 2010, 38 babies had been left in the "Findelbaby" baby hatch in Hamburg, 14 of whom were later reclaimed by their mothers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「baby hatch」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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