By Berk Kutay Gokmen
ISTANBUL (AA) - A "baby hatch" at the San-ikukai Hospital in Tokyo was used for the first time since the facility opened the service in March, Kyodo News reported Thursday, citing a source familiar with the matter.
The hospital is the second medical institution in Japan to introduce the service, after the Jikei Hospital in the Kumamoto Prefecture, which launched the initiative in 2007.
Baby hatches allow parents to anonymously leave infants they feel they cannot raise.
The San-ikukai Hospital opened its hatch March 31 to serve as "the last line of defense" to protect newborns, particularly amid a rise in unplanned pregnancies, isolated childbirths and incidents of infant abandonment.
The hospital also offers a "confidential birth" system that permits women to give birth without disclosing their identity, except to hospital staff. Under the baby hatch program, the facility accepts babies up to four weeks old.
Hospital staff will attend to the infant within one minute of being placed in the hatch. Afterward, the hospital notifies the local child welfare center.
The Tokyo metropolitan government, which oversees child welfare in the city, said it will establish a dedicated committee to monitor and verify baby hatch operations.