Emergency management plan for newborn abduction

Since 1983, 111 newborns have been abducted by strangers from hospitals in the United States. In Canada, five abductions from hospitals have been reported since 1990. Emergency management plans for newborn abduction must be in place in every institution that cares for newborns and seeks accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which requires multidisciplinary planning of critical incident response procedures, staff education, mock newborn abductions, and evaluation of response during the mock incidents. Prevention strategies such as staff and parent education and physical environment security measures have led to a marked decrease of newborn abductions in the United States in the past 10 years.