Just before Family Day, sad data is published showing that 217 babies who were abandoned during their hospitalization were treated by volunteers of the "First Hug" association.
These are babies who are hospitalized for an extended period of time, when there are no family members around them.
The "First Hug" association gives touch and love during prolonged hospitalization to babies who stay in the hospitals without family support.
This year, over 200 volunteers of the association cared for 217 babies for a total of: 16,793 hours of care, in 77 children's hospitalization departments all over the country such as: maternity, newborns, internal medicine, surgery, intensive care, oncology, and more.
According to the association's data, in 2022 the volunteers treated 17 hospitals.
From the segmentation of the social background of the babies treated by the association this year, it appears that most of them were born to parents from the geographic or social periphery.
About a quarter of the babies (26%) are from the Arab sector, about a tenth (9%) from the Bedouin sector, 3% are Palestinian and 2% are migrant workers.
Unfathomable number: 217 abandoned babies (illustration), photo: none
The association defines four main groups of lonely and abandoned babies during hospitalization: more than half of them are babies in long-term hospitalization without a family background.
About a fifth are babies whose caregivers are in a physical or mental state that poses a risk.
In 14% of the cases the parent is not present at all and in 8% of the cases the parent is a danger to the baby.
Included in these groups are, among others, babies who are hospitalized due to domestic violence when the parents are under arrest, babies born to mothers whose medical condition does not allow them to care for the baby, or babies to parents whose social condition does not allow them to stay with the baby every day for months of hospitalization away from home.
It also shows that 40% of the babies treated by the association are not released to their homes at all, but continue their lives in foster care, adoption or another welfare setting.
About 90% of the association's babies were born with disabilities or a complex medical condition: premature, infectious diseases, cancer, or hospitalization for surgery.
28% suffer from chronic diseases and disabilities, 15% of the babies are hospitalized due to genetic syndromes and about 3% with withdrawal syndrome.
"Unfortunately, the health system is not prepared to respond to the hospitalization of toddlers whose parents are not around," says Efrat Yassur, CEO of the association.
In Israel there are hundreds more babies who need support, and thousands of people who want to volunteer and help.
But the state doesn't budget and the association doesn't have enough resources to take in more volunteers who want to take part in this important work."
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us
