In the UK, a woman who was abandoned as a baby is pushing for the introduction of baby boxes. Toyin Odumala’s online petition highlights the concept, which is in use in the US, China, and some European countries, for parents who cannot care for their child and want to leave them in a safe place. The boxes, often located at hospitals and fire stations, are temperature-controlled and have a sensor that alerts emergency services to a child being placed inside. Abandoned babies have been found throughout the UK, but it’s unclear how many it affects annually.
Odumala was left wrapped in a denim jacket in Plumstead, south-east London, in July 2001, with her umbilical cord still attached. Dog walkers found her and raised the alarm. She was taken to hospital, where nurses named her Osie after the registrar who was on duty. Adopted by a loving family, she discovered that she had been abandoned only when she was 11-years-old: “I always had questions I just didn’t understand,” she says.
Now 22, Odumala says there is still a need to end babies being left, adding, “This is still happening. So it’s an issue. And it needs to stop. We need to stop this”. Although she was given the opportunity to make contact with her birth mother, Odumala says she is focused on making changes for abandoned children in the future.
The proposal has gained more than 30,000 signatures on popular online petition site Change.org, although the UK government has not commented on the possibility of introducing baby boxes. The country’s Department of Health and Social Care said improving care before, during, and after pregnancy was one of its “top priorities”. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, however, is against baby boxes on the grounds that they “contravene the right of the child to be known and cared for by his or her parents.
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