THE RIGHT BABY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 145, 22 June 1938, Page 8

THE RIGHT BABY

Various methods have been adopted by nursing homes to make sure that babies do not get mixed at birth. In several instances science has been called in to prevent mistakes. Budapest has decreed that all newly-born children in Hungary be supplied with a registered number, to be inscribed on their birth certificates. It is declared that the purpose of the registration is to "prevent the mistaken exchange of children in nursing homes," but it is not clear how numbering will achieve this object. There does not appear to be safety in numbers. The Austrian plan of recording side by side the thumb prints of every new-born child and its mother is more likely to prevent later errors, or at least to enable such errors to be detected should a mother suspect that the offspring is not the right one., But the safest and surest of all methods appears to be that used by an American j maternity hospital. The authorities, rely not on a number, but on a name, and that is stencilled on the baby by ultra-violet rays. The infant is not branded for life. The mark remains visible for about a fortnight—long enough, it is considered, to ensure that no "swapping" takes place. Even after it becomes invisible the brand can be restored to view at any time within a period of two or three months. The process is painless and harmless.