It is a long-known tradition of hospitals announcing the name of the year's first baby, but they are not doing it for 2015.
Community Health Systems, one of the largest healthcare companies in the United States, ordered all of its facilities not to disclose the name of the first baby of 2015 to protect the baby from abduction and identity theft. Other hospitals decided to do the same, and some limited the information provided to the media, according to the Associated Press.
"We know the birth of the new year baby is a joyous and exciting event, but protecting patient safety and privacy is our most important responsibility," said Tomi Galin, a spokeswoman for the company.
The new policy is the idea of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that asked healthcare providers not to disclose the home addresses and other identifying information during the announcement, as well as seeking parental consent before publicizing the baby's information.
Last month, NCMEC released a report revealing that 296 infants were recorded nationwide between 1983 and 2014, and 12 of the newborns were kidnapped and never returned. It also warned that the abductions are likely to increase during the holidays.
Based on this report, the Baptist Health and Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama, announced that they are limiting the information to the name of the baby and time of birth to protect the infants and their families.
"After studying these findings, our Directors of Women's Services at Baptist East and Baptist South have adopted a new policy and, for the protection of newborns and their families, we will neither be allowing media to interview parents nor show photos of any babies born on New Year's," Merrill South, spokesperson for Baptist Health, said in an email to the Montgomery Advertiser.
Now that the hospitals will not disclose any information, this leaves the decision to contact the media in the hands of the baby's parents, or the media is left to search for the information on their own. NCMEC clarified that it did not instruct the hospitals to follow its recommendation, but simply warned that child abductions are a possibility.
"We've never given direction to hospitals that they shouldn't do it," Robert Lowery said to the Associated Press.
