Being a new parent can be stressful enough without worrying about someone taking your newborn right out of the hospital nursery.

While it’s never happened at Albert Lea Medical Center, it has in other places. That’s why we applaud the medical center for taking the precautionary measure of implementing the hugs and kisses security program.

The security program at ALMC’s The Baby Place helps parents focus less on fear and more on the joys of parenthood. ALMC integrated the kisses program with the already-existing hugs security program. The program operates using computer integrated tags.

Minutes after delivery, a hugs anklet is attached to the newborn while still in the parents’ sight. The small device is programmed for that baby with a unique identification number and matched to the mother’s kisses bracelet. The two devices are bonded together in the delivery room.

While fathers do not receive kisses tags, they do have traditional wristbands that match them to their newborn. Mother and baby also have traditional bands, but the hugs and kisses system indicates a match or mismatch without the need for visual checks.

The system automatically confirms that the right baby is with the right mother after they have been separated for more than 20 minutes. When a kisses device comes within 18 inches of a hugs device, a lullaby plays signaling a match between the right mother and baby. If the devices do not match, an alarm sounds.

Hugs and kisses tags are bonded for the duration of the baby’s hospital stay and will work if other infants are in the room.

ALMC set up the hugs program as a contained security measure four years ago. That security program remains in effect. Every exit point on the third floor of ALMC is electronically monitored to detect the hugs tags. If an infant wearing a hugs band is detected leaving the protected zone, a Code Amber goes into effect. A Code Amber is an automatic lockdown of the third floor.

It may seem like a lot of trouble to go to where there hasn’t been an abduction before, but that could change in an instant. This assures that it won’t, and takes one worry out of the stress of being a new parent.