The Hope iThemba Crisis Pregnancy Centre on Eighth Street no longer has a baby box.
Previously, mothers who wanted to give up their infants would put their child safely in the baby box (which was essentially a computerised safe), the baby’s weight would trigger the alarm which sent out a message alert to the centre staff members who would then take the baby in.
However, that option no longer exists for parents.
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“By law, we have three minutes to react and get the baby out, but we found that was not possible.
“It was especially a problem after hours and we had to drive like crazy to get here on time.
“We also had a problem with hoaxes where people would put a brick in or sometimes even when people were donating clothes after hours, it would trigger the alarm and we couldn’t ignore it as we had no way of knowing if there was a baby in there or not,” says the centre’s director, Pat Kemp.
Although the centre no longer has a baby box, they are still providing critical services to women in Springs.
The centre offers free pregnancy tests, unplanned pregnancy counselling and practical help.
Hope iThemba also offers to counsel on post-abortion, miscarriage and childbirth.
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