Baby hatches (windows of life): idea, controversy, experiences

Abstract

The most important thing for a child is the family. The child, on the other hand, becomes the most important and the most valuable for the parents. It is they who are responsible for its development, its care and its upbringing. The problems and dangers experienced by the family today have an impact on the difficulty of carrying out its caring and upbringing function. The well-being of children and families is a prerequisite for efforts on the part of the state and other entities to organise various forms of support, which undoubtedly also include the baby hatches (windows of life), as entities for short-term care of children left there by their parents – most often mothers – in those dramatic situations when they cannot or do not want to care for them. This paper presents the idea of the baby hatches (windows of life), the most important controversies related to their existence and - by indicating their number, as well as the number of children left there - an assessment of the functioning of these entities in our country.