Hospitals identify ways to keep infants safe

Baby-snatching fears have prompted a Southern Idaho hospital to stop publishing the names of new infants in local newspapers, but Inland Northwest hospitals say they long ago took more stringent actions to avert abduction.

Specialized identification tags, routine abduction drills and secret security measures are in place in hospitals across the region, where officials try to dissuade parents from publishing birth announcements or posting “It’s a Girl!” signs in their yards.

“That’s one of the things I talk about in class,” said Maureen Shogan, a neonatal clinical nurse specialist at Spokane’s Deaconess Medical Center. “Everybody’s wanting to celebrate, and it might not be the best way to protect your baby.”

That was the feeling in Rexburg, Idaho, where officials at Madison Memorial Hospital announced recently that they no longer would publish public birth notices because of the possibility of encouraging kidnappings.

“Based on national events that have happened in the past couple months, we decided to act before anything did happen,” Allison Foulk, the hospital spokeswoman, told the Post Register newspaper.

Last month, a week-old Missouri baby was taken from home. Since 1983, 245 infants have been abducted from hospitals, homes and other sites, according to statistics from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Four of those kidnappings were linked to newspaper announcements, center spokeswoman Cathy Nahirny said.

That makes local hospitals leery of publishing baby names in local papers or online. At Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d’Alene, babies are identified only by first name on the hospital Web site, said spokeswoman Lisa Johnson.

Most local hospitals will provide birth announcement forms, but they leave it up to parents to submit. Of nearly 6,000 babies born in Spokane every year, about 80 percent have their names published in the newspaper, according to Spokesman-Review records.

“It was an automatic thing that the newspaper published them before, but the parents have to do it now,” said Anne McKeon, spokeswoman for Holy Family Hospital in Spokane.

And that’s just the smallest of security steps aimed at protecting new babies. Local hospitals say they follow security protocols that range from distinctive color-coded badges for authorized nurses to quarterly hospitalwide abduction drills and limited access.

“You can’t even use the stairway from our second floor for that reason,” said McKeon.

Parents are warned to keep their babies close to them and away from doors and to question unfamiliar staff members, said Heidi Wilson-Seger, manager for the family and maternity department at Holy Family.

“Let’s close the barn door before the horse gets out,” said Wilson-Seger.

Abductions remain rare in the region and across the country. Sacred Heart Medical Center had a scare in August, when a woman tried to abduct her 1-year-old granddaughter. The hospital was placed on alert, and staff members blocked all exits, news reports indicated. The woman rammed the car of a hospital security guard who blocked the exit.

“We take the whole infant security thing with the utmost seriousness,” said Kate Smith, a Sacred Heart spokeswoman.

But at least one father of a new baby said the risk of abduction is the least of his parental worries.

“I never gave it a second thought,” said Adam Nebeker, 28, who was happy to announce the Aug. 10 birth of Lucy Kate in the newspaper.

“It is scary, some of the things that are out there, but you can’t let fear run your life,” added Nebeker, general manager of the Spokane Shock arena football team.

But hospital officials insist that they can’t be too careful.

“I think it’s the fact that you’re dealing with a vulnerable newborn, and we’re all overprotective,” said Wilson-Seger. “For us, one is too many.”