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Japan's baby hatch hospital offers mothers 'last resort'
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This picture on June 10, 2022 shows staff working in a nursery room at Jikei hospital in Kumamoto. (AFP/Philip Fong)
W
hen the alarm sounds at Jikei hospital in southern Japan, nurses race down a spiral staircase. Their mission: to rescue an infant left in the country's only baby hatch.
For 15 years, the clinic has been the only place in Japan a child can be anonymously and safely abandoned.
The pioneering hospital in the Kumamoto region also offers a 24/7 pregnancy support hotline and the country's only "confidential birth" programme.
These have made it the target of criticism, but head doctor Takeshi Hasuda sees the facility as a vital safety net.
"There are women out there who are ashamed that they did something horrible (by getting pregnant) and are so scared," he told AFP.
"For these women, a place like ours that bars no one and makes them think 'even I will be welcome' counts a lot, I think."
Nurses try to arrive at the hatch, with its stork illustrations and meticulously tended baby bed, within a minute of the alarm sounding.
