HUGS For Our Tiniest Patients

The birth of a baby is an exciting time for new moms and dads. So many dreams are coming true, and a wonderful stage of life is just around the corner. Our priority at Saint Alphonsus Maternity Care is to make pregnancy, from start to finish, as pleasant and safe as possible.

However, anxiety can come with the anticipation of an impending birth. Among the highest concern is the desire to keep safe this new bundle of joy. Although most people don’t think about it, in-hospital infant abductions, though rare, do occur.

Infant abduction is defined as when a child is taken without a parent or custodian’s consent. While there is no guarantee this profile will fit all situations, most abductors are women, live in the surrounding community and seize any opportunity present to abduct a baby. The abductors typically range in age from 14 years to 49 years. These individuals often impersonate a nurse or other health care personnel and become familiar with staff members’ and victim parents’ work and other life routines. Additionally, those seeking to abduct an infant often have assessed the hospital setting and have a plan prepared.

According to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, from 1964 to January 2025, 140 infants and children were taken from US healthcare facilities. While that number may sound low, even one missing baby is devastating to everyone involved and something that should never happen.

Saint Alphonsus annually welcomes more than a combined 2,500 births at our Idaho hospitals in Boise and Nampa and in Ontario, Oregon. We are always working to ensure all our tiniest patients are safe and secure, so all three sites are slated an upgrade of a new security system called HUGS over the course of the next year. This platform limits access to and exits from our secured units where babies are in our care. The HUGS Wi-Fi system is the industry’s strongest performer in technical and security, consumables, customer reference and overall commercial ratings. The HUGS system works by matching a baby with the mother at the time of birth. To ensure that each infant is correctly matched with its mother or legal guardian, nurses assign and affix a small monitoring band to the infant and enter the ID information into EPIC. Once activated, the band alarms if taken near the exits and tracks the infant outside the unit.

Our best resources are, as always, the nurses and doctors at the birth facilities. They are the first line of defense. We want them to know we are all committed to supporting their work in protection and security. Infant abduction is a threat that we cannot risk. The Stanley HUGS system is one more tool to aid us in hypervigilance for the infant care we provide in our units.

Want to support this effort? The Saint Alphonsus Foundation is currently fundraising for securing safety for babies with the HUGS program. If this project inspires you to make a contribution, we welcome you to do so on our secure donation website.