Health Beat #29 | Baby Saver boxes: A Lifeline for mothers or a gateway to crime?

Baby Savers South Africa is taking the government to court over Gauteng’s ban on baby boxes. Are they a harmful tool that makes child abandonment and trafficking easier, or a lifeline for mothers with nowhere to turn? With about 3,500 babies abandoned unsafely each year, Health Beat looks at whether a maternal support grant could help change that.

• In 1999, a metal box called the “Door of Hope” was installed at a church in Joburg, offering birth mothers in crisis a safe way to leave their babies. Over 25 years, hundreds of newborns have been left there.
• This method, known as “safe relinquishment”, is meant to give mothers a way to leave babies anonymously and without fear of judgment and punishment if they’re unable to look after them. But South Africa's laws don't recognise this practice. 
• Now, a group called Baby Savers South Africa is taking the Gauteng department of social development (DSD) to court for banning baby savers. DSD argues the boxes promote abandonment and child trafficking.
• But some experts say, with about 3,500 babies abandoned in this country each year, the government’s money would be best spent on giving practical help to mothers in the form of a maternal support grant. 

This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.