The Baby Hatch

If you are in dire straits... – and the only way out you see is to confide your child to a baby hatch.

Taking this decision, although in serious difficulties you demonstrate that you feel responsible for the health and life of your child. For mothers in an extreme emergency situation like this, the regional capital of Kiel offers a "baby hatch" at the City Hospital. They want to help you to anonymously hand your newborn baby over to a public authority and thus save its life.

Your child is taken care of

Follow the signs, and you can easily reach the City Hospital baby hatch.

Lay down your child into the baby hatch and take your time to say goodbye.

There will be a letter for you in the hatch, as we would like to offer you the opportunity to name your child.

Once you close the hatch, after two minutes it cannot be opened again from outside. An alarm will be set off in the childrens' medical unit, and a children's nurse will be available to attend to the child within the next few minutes. A pediatrician will then examine the baby and arrange for its further health care.

Lageplan Babyklappe

As soon as the child is ready to be released, the regional capital of Kiel Central adoption office will take the child to dedicated foster parents who will lovingly take care of your child. Adoption procedures will be opened, and the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) will become the child's legal guardian.

If you do not report during the following eight weeks, the Kiel municipal court will in your place agree to the child's adoption. The foster family will be supervised for one year to make sure the child is well. Only then the adoption shall be legally executed, and the child has new parents.

What can I do for my child?

Later on the child will understand that its adoptive parents are not its biological parents. It is important for the child to know its true origin. Therefore you may want to leave some information for your child or send it to the City Hospital or to the Central adoption office later. Here your information will be safeguarded in a sealed envelope only for your child to read.

You will help your child to cope with the situation later on if you tell them who you are and what kind of distress you were going through then. Children who do not know who their biological parents are and why they are not living with them, may be suffering from this for the rest of their lives. Perhaps there even are medical specifications of importance for your child to receive appropriate health care.

Where do you get support now?

You may unhurriedly think through your decision to give away your child.

The Central adoption office and several helplines offer assistance. In a private telephone conversation, where you do not have to identify yourself, experienced helpline advisors will tell you where to get advice, help or support.

Adresses, phone numbers and internet contacts can also be found here. Counselling at the offices mentioned is of course free of charge.

This is where you will also get support in order to come to terms with your own decision. You may wish to talk it over with someone, so you can deal with the situation. There are women who, after leaving their anonymity start talking about how severe the mental strain was when they left their child behind, and how broken-hearted they were about everything.

If you are prepared to give up anonymity, the Allgemeiner Sozialdienst, public social service will support you, if you wish, to either

  • have your child back and provide appropriate home help for you, or
  • accomodate both of you in a mother-and-child facility, or
  • start ordinary adoption procedures for your child, so it has the option to lateron learn about its biological mother. It will also be possible for you to meet the adoptive parents.


 
Allgemeine Beratung:
Allgemeiner Sozialdienst (ASD) Amt für Soziale Dienste

  • Sozialzentrum Nord
    Mercatorstraße 40, 24106 Kiel 
    0431 901-4691 
     
  • Sozialzentrum Mitte 
    Sophienblatt 50b, 24114 Kiel 
    0431 901-3673
     
  • Sozialzentrum Mettenhof 
    Skandinaviendamm 299, 24109 Kiel 
    0431 901-4632
     
  • Sozialzentrum Süd 
    Saarbrückenstraße 145, 24114 Kiel 
    0431 901-3697
     
  • Sozialzentrum Gaarden 
    Bahnhofstraße 38 a, 24143 Kiel 
    0431 901-4667
     
  • Sozialzentrum Ost 
    Wischhofstraße 1-3, 24148 Kiel 
    0431 901-4675
 

Languages

Adresses

Babyklappe
Städtisches Krankenhaus
Chemnitzstraße 33, 24116 Kiel   
0431 1697-1800

Adoptionsvermittlung
Jugendamt 
Speckenbeker Weg 53 c/d, 24113 Kiel 
0431 901-36 40
 
Fax 0431 901-64901