Last month a recently opened baby hatch in Guangzhou, Southern China had to shut within a few months because they were inundated. There were 260 children left in their hatch since the end of January 2014. They have 1000 beds and they’re already full. The centre will continue to care for the kids but it’s over capacity and has had to shut its hatch temporarily.

These abandoned children at the Guangzhou centre all had illnesses, such as cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome and congenital heart disease.

This system doubtless saves the lives of babies with poor families that wouldn’t have been fed or treated properly. It’s a sad state of affairs that any family has to decide whether they can afford to keep a child, but the overflowing centre of Guangzhou shows that there is a real need for this type of care. Increased free healthcare and financial help for families would be better, but I suppose these hatch schemes are cheaper in the short run.

China is planning to increase its number of baby hatch centres over the coming months.

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