Security concerns making birth notices obsolete

Security concerns making birth notices obsolete

Aug 10, 2006 12:15 PM

ASSOCIATED PRESS

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Security guidelines and fears of infant abductions are making birth notices a thing of the past.
Kelley Brewer, chief executive of Lakeside Women's Hospital in Oklahoma City, says publishing the names of the parents of newborns could actually help an abductor locate an infant.

State health care officials no longer endorse birth notices because of security guidelines published by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The guidelines are widely used by hospitals for infant security protocol.

Authorities say that in 1991, eleven babies nationwide were taken from health care operations. By 2005, there were none.

http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=5265345&nav=menu99_2_6

...we are turning away from eachother, shutting and locking our doors, huddling alone against the imagined terrors that seem to swirl around us. Every one of us is becoming steadily more solitary, more powerless, more fearful. Add a few more locks to the doors, buy a new alarm system, demand cameras on the streets. Fear is abroad in the world and the streets belong to Him.

Pretty damned sad.

mine this sort of information to deluge people with sales crap in the mail and on the phone.

plastering the information in the newspaper serves no useful purpose.

if you are so out of touch with somebody that you don't even know they are having a baby, maybe you
don't really need to know.


Msongs
www.msongs.com/2007politicalcalendars.htm

...people have always liked to make public announcements about big events in their lives. Births, marriages and deaths (or as it was called when I lived in Ireland "hatches, matches and dispatches"), published in the local press, act as a kind of social metronome, beating out the rhythm of communities. People who lost touch after school can still see how the lives of their classmates are progressing, or mourn the death of an inspirational teacher.

Unfortunately, corporations have (as is their way) hijacked normal human curiosity and repurposed it for their own ends, but that doesn't mean the curiosity has gone away. Just that we have to forego it in order to protect ourselves. That's the bit I find sad.

The 60's in small town Byesville, Ohio, the paper used to carry announcements about folks coming in from out of town to visit.

We still have newspaper clippings stating that mom and dad were coming in from Columbus to visit her mom on meek ave. This allowed people to know we were visiting and come and see us.

The paper was the gossip column, but generally in a good way :)

The village is changing.

I remember being touched to learn of VT's "Welcome Baby" program -just a visit in the hospital, no pressure, Do you need anything? Info about resources or services? Training or classes? Would you like a home visit? No? Okay, good luck and welcome.

Who knows what other factors were at play, but over a 10 yr period the state enjoyed a "43% decrease in child abuse, and a 70% decrease in sexual abuse of children".

http://grassrootsmom.blogspot.com/2003_11_01_grassrootsmom_archive.html

nicely put, *sigh*

They would tell about who was on vacation and where they went.. People would send postcards to be read on "Gad-abouts"..

They also would announce (if you asked them to) who was in the hospital and where to send cards..even what room they were in..