As many as 50 abandoned newborn babies are found in Germany every year. Often they have been left in the streets, in rivers or simply in garbage cans, and half of them are found dead. It is estimated that in 1999 in Germany some 130 babies were abandoned, about half as many as were abandoned in the United States.

A group of concerned Berliners worked toward finding a solution for expectant mothers who need help in knowing what to do once their baby is born. The Seventh-day Adventist hospital in Berlin, Krankenhaus Waldfriede, initiated a program three years ago called “The Baby Cradle,” a refuge where desperate mothers may bring their newborn babies and place them into the care of the hospital. Today, The Baby Cradle is one of several refuge centers in the country.

Here’s how it works: The “Baby Cradle” is a small door on the outside wall of the hospital which mothers can open and place their baby inside. Confidentiality assured, the mother has enough time to leave unseen. Once the baby is inside the “cradle,” a signal goes to the front gate. From the front gate a telephone call informs nurses in the baby ward that a newborn has been placed in the cradle.

“We take the baby and bring it into the baby ward,” says Dr. Siegbert Heck, director of the baby ward. “After a health check, [the baby] stays for a few days in the care of the hospital. In the meantime, we work with the office for adoption in search for a family who would take care of the baby.”

“For at least eight weeks every mother has the right to come back and reconsider her decision,” says Gabriele Stangl, a chaplain at the hospital. “Most of all the women are afraid—afraid of their partners who threaten them, or afraid of their families.”

Project Baby Cradle involves more than caring for abandoned babies—the cradle is actually the last option, hospital administrators say.

“Ninety-five percent of the work now is consultation,” Stangl says. “The women have learned to trust us and come before the birth. That way we, together with the prospective mother, can find a good solution for perhaps 80 percent of the situations. There are moments when the mother first rejects the child, but after awhile she says, ‘I’d like to keep [the baby] but I don’t know how.’ That is when we can do a lot for them. When women come here anonymously, women who live on the edge of society, and then they start a new life and the reason for that is a newborn baby, that is simply fantastic,” she says.