Be gentle, this is my 100th post.

Once those little suckers set their sites on something they want, they can stow it in their onesies or their snuglies and you'll never fucking know it.

They're crafty little shits, and for that reason most baby theft goes way underreported.

I would imagine it's the latter, but I don't really know.

Where sites = sights.

Mudpuppie, that was awesome.

Based on a study of cases (begun in 1988) from 1983 through 1992, the best estimate for the nationwide incidence of infant abductions, by non-family members, is between 12 and 18 yearly. Because a number of cases may not be reported to the NCMEC or other organizations, however, this estimate may be conservative. (As a point of comparison, there are approximately 4.2 million births yearly in the United States at approximately 3,500 birthing facilities). Seventy-seven (77) of the cases studied were abductions from hospital premises, and thirty-three (33) were infant abductions from the home, following many of the same patterns as the hospital abductions. Nine (9) additional infants were abducted from other places such as malls, offices, parking lots, etc. Of the facilities in which infants have been abducted, 11 percent of the abductions occurred in facilities with no more than 200 beds, 39 percent of the abductions occurred in facilities with between 201 and 400 beds, 24 percent of the abductions occurred in facilities with between 401 and 600 beds, and 26 percent of the abductions occurred in facilities with more than 600 beds. Of all the infants abducted from the hospital, more than 95 percent were located and safely returned, usually within a few days to two weeks. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that there may be numerous attempts at most birthing facilities each year.

When my boy was born, they made sure I didn't lose sight of him since he popped out of my wife, was taken to another room for cleaning, etc., until they had 2 separate name & barcode tags on him, and made a point of showing me each tag, having me read the names, etc.
So yeah, they were careful.
A few years back there was a high profile baby switch in a hospital here in Chile, where one of the moms always knew it wasn0t her baby, and nobody believed her until 1 year later, when they did DNA tests and figured out they'd screwed up, and then the families got together to exchange the babies they'd been raising as their own for the past year. Yikes.

I would think the latter, but it does seem to be like you read about it more and more these days.

I remember my mom saying she turned her back to get a box from a grocery shelf, and when she turned around again someone was trying to lift infant-me from the cart. Mom screamed and started hitting the woman, who ran and wasn't caught.

(although that was the first thought in my mind when watching Children of Men- if that really did happen you would see a LOT more kidnapping. some people seem to build their entire life around the idea that they will Get Married and Have A Family, and go nuts when they don't or can't.)

Hey, we had one up here about a month ago. The accused stealer was a recently pregnant, but miscarried lady with a pretty rotten life growing up, and a boyfriend that she thought was contingent on the baby. So, when she lost the baby, I think she went a little nuts, and pretended she was still pregnant. She ended up showing up at the hospital, and went into a few rooms before she convinced one mom that she had to take the baby for a weighing or something, and the most agreed, on the condition that she came along. EXCEPT, the mom had to pee first. Off the accused went. Luckily, there was a great video camera shot. She was caught three hours later, about 3 hours away, trying to pawn off a baby girl as the baby boy she told the boyfriend she was pregnant with.

Anyway, all was well with the wee abductee, and the lady was arrested, vilified, etc. I mean, not to say what she did was right, or okay at all, but in this rare case, I seem to have some sympathy with a downtrodden person with some postpartum psychosis probably. Anyway, the trial continues.

So yeah, it does happen, and if we were having any more, I'd be keeping a watchful eye, that's for sure. And, I'd say that's another mark in favour of a home birth, or at least, like we did with out second, a hospital birth with midwives. We were home within three hours of the birth. AND, we've only misplaced her once, maybe twice, but I'm pretty sure no one abducted her EITHER time.

Gah, mudpuppie, you seriously made me spit. SRSLY! for hoary oldtimers: she owes me a keyboard.

drezdn, I also imagine that explicitly outlining certain things that the parents should be "responsible" about in terms of any safeguarding may potentially decrease their legal culpability in any instance that it does happen on or around the premises - which may be an incentive for them to stress some things. Total guess. ?

My son had an RFID chip on his ankle. If you tried to take him out of the Unit, it would trigger alarms and the whole hospital would go into lock-down. The staff there said that it was much more common than you would think.

My kids and I had the matching barcode bracelet/anklet things and had to be cleared off the floor and out of the hospital. Both of them were mostly in the room with me at all times.

I think they are giving this extra attention to give you piece of mind. Like others have said, there have been some high profile cases of this in the news and expecting parents have enough to worry about.

I was really paranoid about this and baby-mixups-at-hospital in particular when I was about to give birth. It was enough to have read one story about it in the seventies to make me silently promise myself that my baby would never leave my side. Little did I know that once she was out of me, she would crawl up to my chest and make camp for like 48 hours. I did not let her sleep in the hospital crib next to me like the other moms in the same room (fat chance of that anyway, as soon as she didn't touch nipple, she screamed) instead she hung out on my arm all night. And when I needed the loo I rolled her in that crib with me, leaving the door open (couldn't get the crib all the way into the loo) I didn't care if anyone saw or heard. She did leave my side shortly after birth to go upstairs with a Doctor and Dad to check on her vitals properly since the birth was a little dramatic with cord around her neck and all that.
She got the namtag and the tagged crib, no fancy tech RFID thingies mind you, but I decided to get the hell out of the hospital asap anyway. I really didn't like being in a room with three other women, all of whom had c-sections and all of them complained and got extra painkillers and injections, and sleep meds and crap. Meanwhile, I had lost a lot of blood (900+ ml so I was very faint) but thanks to the whiners need for whining, the doctors actually missed checking up on me (hiding behind my privacy curtain as I was constantly showing boobs with baby attached) while doing their rounds. Nurses did not bring me food - I was told later that I should have rung the alarm for that. 'Scuse me? Alarms are for like serious shit, like bleeding or near fainting or horrible pains, not breakfast lunch and dinner! Anyway, so I dashed home two nights later and could finally relax. I'm so home-birthing next time, my man didn't dare seeing as it was my first time and all, and things might go wrong etc which is fair enough. Maybe birth at hospital then going home at once will be a good compromise. My two midwives were great though, wouldn't trade them for the world - but I don't see the point of being in a hospital when you don't get fed or any help (unless you whiiiIIiiIIIiiine) because basically that just means you're shackled to a strange bed with a crap pillow, rough sheets and no TV. Blech.

dabitch, my sister in law had her baby at home with a midwife, and it was all excellent and perfect (and, my god! such a thriving child!). At 40. But she is quite amazing, and had already been long into all sorts of alternative/holistic stuff. To be honest, I don't think anything has convinced me more about the efficacy of holistic medicine as her whole pregnancy and birth. I was awed.

*psssssst*

YOU WANNA BUY A BABBY?

I know several people who have given birth at home in their bathtubs. I could never use my bathtub again if I did that. After all the goo and guts and stuff, it would just never seem clean to me again. (Plus, you can't exactly do c-sections in the bathtub. That's more of a kitchen table thing, I would imagine.)

Aaaanyway, the hospital I just gave birth at actually had a baby snatched from there years ago. Some crazy lady just walked in, scooped up an infant and walked out. Now it's locked up tight and they attach little anti-theft things on the baby's umbilical cord...just like the ones they put on clothes at the store. If you walked the baby too close to the door,the alarm would go off and all hell would break loose.

Oh, and mudpuppie is totally right. They are complete effing kleptos. I just changed the boy's diapers after a shopping trip and found a 2008 Anne Geddes wall calendar stuffed down there. Guess he's into naked girls dressed as ladybugs. *shrugs*

I just changed the boy's diapers after a shopping trip and found a 2008 Anne Geddes wall calendar stuffed down there. Guess he's into naked girls dressed as ladybugs.

Either that, or he's really adept at time management and you just don't know it yet.

When I knew she was going to do a home birth, I thought my sil was going to give birth in the bathtub, but it was apparently a birthing chair, in her living room - with plastic spread out all over the floor!

Seriously, y'all, if I thought there was any possibility of forming babby without going to the hospital? Maybe I would have considered it more seriously than I did. Maaaaaybeeee.

Well I'll be giving birth to Blob in a small clinic where I am the only white woman so I'm not too stressed about mix ups.

Also baby thefts seem to be extremely rare here - probably related to the low birth rate.

Baby Theft: How common is it?

Not very common. Babies are just too small to steal very much stuff.

Damn, on preview, mudpuppie beat me to it (and did it better.)

Yaknow when you're in pram-age with baby, shop-guards keep a good eye on you. I found this really offensive when I noticed it. But then my baby gal has managed to squirrel away lots of toys (from clothing-shops no less) shiny tubes of toothpaste and god know what else that caught her eye so I realize now they're not thinking "you there, with baby, probably a thief" but they know that babies really are kleptos and sometimes mom won't notice. ;)