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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

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Original poster

Baby security tags in hospital

25 replies

squashysmummy · 20/11/2006 12:15

Just curious... when are newborns supposed to be tagged whilst in hospital?
I ask because DD was tagged when she was about 11 hours old , after we had left the delivery suite (6 hours), then stayed in a side ward (3 hours) whilst waiting for a bed to be free downstairs in the post-natal ward. Her tag-free state was picked up by the lovely AN who came around to give DD her first bath, and the security tag was put on 2 hours after going down into the post-natal ward.
It was only because the AN exclaimed loud surprise at the lack of security tag that I realised that any nutcase on the ward could have taken my precious baby away (post-delivery rampaging hormones taking over rational thought! )

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misdee · 20/11/2006 12:17

they tag your baby??

madmarchhare · 20/11/2006 12:18

I dont think all hospital do this anyway, so I imagine individual policies vary immensely

Original poster

squashysmummy · 20/11/2006 12:19

To set off the alarms on the post-natal ward, to stop babies being kidnapped.

OP posts:

misdee · 20/11/2006 12:21

they had alarms on cots, but not tags. you put the baby in the cot, turned the alarm on and pinned the key to your jamas, if anyone lifted the baby out of the cot the alarms will sound.

buktus · 20/11/2006 12:24

my dd was tagged at about 3 hours old

lemonaid · 20/11/2006 12:24

DS was never security tagged at all. He had his hospital anklebands but that was it and there was no security element to those. The setup on the postnatal ward (individual rooms, plus permanently-manned front desk, plus security doors) would probably have stopped and would-be baby-snatcher, though.

lulumama · 20/11/2006 12:24

both mine had tags around their ankles, that set of the alarm if you took them too close, never mind out of the door of the ward. also , they operate a strict rooming in policy and never take the baby off you... so their is no chance for someone masquerading as someone official to remove the baby from you. they were tagged soon after birth, as well as having the identity bands.

KathyMCMLXXII · 20/11/2006 12:33

Does anyone apart from me think the whole tag thing is absolutely ridiculous - sledgehammer to crack a nut - given how few babies were ever snatched and that there are other security arrangements in place anyway and you're never allowed to leave your baby alone?

I think next time I might refuse to let them tag mine.

Original poster

squashysmummy · 20/11/2006 12:35

This is why MN is great... instant results! Thanks everyone for your input so far. I'm envious of the individual rooms at Lemonaid's hospital and Misdee's swish cot.

I'm writing to the hospital with some questions about how my 'birth injury' came about (that's another thread) and might add this into the mix.

Off to change a stinking nappy now...

OP posts:

lulumama · 20/11/2006 12:35

i don't!

i want every possible security measure in place. my babies are my most precious thing.

if it was even one baby every 10 years that was snatched.. i;d want to know everything had been done to prevent that, especially if it was my baby.

misdee · 20/11/2006 12:36

oh and when they wanted to take dd3 down to scbu i made sure i went with her.

buktus · 20/11/2006 12:37

i do agree a little bit it probably wont ever happen but if it did happen you wouldnt be able to live with never seeing your newborn again and knowing you could have prevented it, i think its far easier just to have the tag imo

CantWaitForTheSnow · 20/11/2006 12:39

dd just had the ankle name things. People had to be buzzed in and out of the maternity and also childrens wards so I think it would have been very difficult to take her.

asur · 20/11/2006 14:52

ds got a security tag added as soon as we arrived in the ward afterwards - was the most stupid thing as could easily be cut off with scissors (which it was just before we left) Very secure!

MKG · 20/11/2006 15:22

Here in the US we get all kinds of security tags. The baby is tagged, mother is tagged, father is tagged,. We all wear ID bracelets and they have to match in order for baby to be left with us, and when we leave. The baby also wears a "security" tag. It's an electronic device that sounds an alarm if someone tries to take the baby out of the maternity ward (It looks like the ankle units that prisoners on parole wear). That is not taken off until we are about to walk out the door.

PinkTinsel · 20/11/2006 15:23

about 10 seconds after birth.

dd was the first baby in our hospital to ever have it done and it was done straight away.

although ds's fell off the next day!

Quootiepie · 20/11/2006 15:24

Straight away I think... Frimley Park has alarmed cots aswell, but they didnt give me one I had it pulled right up the the head of the bed though (musch to the annoyance of one horrible MW)

sleepfinder · 20/11/2006 16:01

my baby had two tags

one for i.d purposes

one alarmed - attached to his ankle - made him look like a mini-offender, and he pooped all over it.

poppiesinaline · 20/11/2006 16:07

our local hospital only gives indentity tags immediately after birth (one on wrist and one on ankle) but no alarm tags. What an excellent idea.

redbullandbump · 20/11/2006 16:17

ds had one on his leg, we was given a side room when we came up from the delivery ward and i was so paranoid about leaving the room to even go to the toilet and to use the phone at the end of the ward,
at the time they were serving brecky and all i could think of was one of the food people could of snatched ds so i asked if one of the nurses could watch ds while i went to the toilet and to use the phone but they wouldnt.

redbullandbump · 20/11/2006 16:18

decided this time i shall take the baby with me to use the phone and again TRY to run to and from the toilet!!

belgianmama · 20/11/2006 19:30

As soon as they checked both dc's after an adequate amount of skin to skin. I must say I also found them a bit silly because they were attatched to the id bands and could easily been cut off. The alarm also didn't sound on the way out of the labour ward because ds was wrapped up too well in the blankets. Very secure...

PrettyCandles · 20/11/2006 19:36

Neither of the hospitals I was in used security tags. One had done, but the contract ran out just before I had ds1 and they decided not to renew it. Instead they had security staff watching cc tv coverage of all stair landings on ward levels, and also watching (RL, not cctv) the hospital entrance. In the other hospital access to and from the ward was only via locked doors - ie entryphone style. Even so, in both hospitals we were told not to leave our babies alone but to take them with us when we went to the toilet etc, though often staff offered to keep an eye on them for us.

zippy34 · 22/11/2006 20:01

Ds was tagged when we got down to the postnatal ward but as it kept falling off it wouldn't have been much of a deterent!

It did however give me much amusement when it fell off inside ds's babygrow which dh was taking home to wash - cue alarms and automatic lockdown as dh tried to leave the hospital....

Apparently this was very common so the whole system seems a little pointless. The staff were amazingly vigilent about people on the ward that they didn't recognise though. Several people tried to sneak in visitors (other than partners) outside the official times and noone managed to get past the nurses' station.

MumtoBen · 28/11/2006 21:01

My son was not tagged. He didn't have any ID badges on either (they fell off on day 2 of a 10 day stay in hospital and the midwifes wouldn't replace them - I couldn't get the old ones back on). He was in an incubator on a normal ward. The staff expected me to leave him alone to go for meals, which I refused to do. I had to go without meals as I didn't feel safe to leave him unless I had a visitor.

Scarily a very odd man opened the curtains and entered the area where my bed was in and stood and stared at my baby. My husband had to order him out. My husband decided to follow him. He was wandering around the corridors and wards. My husband had to report him to the staff who got rid of him. There was very lax security. Although there was a buzzer lots of people would wander through at the same time. Visitors were supposed to be out by 8.30pm, but were often still there at midnight.

They also lost the baby of a woman in my antenatal hospital. Fortunately the baby was found safely.

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