Only a handful of Denver metro-area hospitals announced their first babies of 2015, a sign of a fading holiday tradition besieged by privacy concerns and fears of abductions and identity theft.
Thursday’s first reported birth in the city came at 12:14 a.m. at Denver Health Medical Center.
She was her parents’ first child and was named Kathleen Marie Hathaway, the hospital said in an announcement. Her parents released a picture through the hospital but declined to be identified.
Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge saw its first baby at 12:21 a.m. Nicole Beaulieu and Christopher Light had a son, Avery Christopher Light.
In April, the parents were given a due date of Christmas, which had seemed like kind of a bummer, Light said.
“What kid wants to have a Christmas birthday, right?” he said, referencing the overlap of gifts and the problems with scheduling birthday parties.
A birth barely into the new year, however, works out great for celebrations.
“At Christmas, most people celebrate with their families,” Light said. “New Year’s, everybody celebrates, friends and family.”
The first baby at Saint Joseph Hospital arrived at 2:58 a.m.: Emily Guadalupe Sotela was born to Maria Carbaja Sotela and Oscar Edwardo Molina Lopez.
University of Colorado Hospital saw its first birth — Henry Cavinder — at 2:40 a.m, the hospital announced on its Facebook page. The names of Henry’s parents were not released.
University set two newborn records for the hospital, with 356 babies in December, beating its old mark of 335 in a month, and a record 3,610 babies for the year.
Jack Ryan McCutchan was the first baby born at Rose Medical Center, at 1:01 a.m., and Sarah Young was born at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette at 3:04 a.m. to Matt and Julie Young.
On Thursday, The Associated Press reported that the annual birth announcements are a dying tradition because of parents’ desire for privacy and because of new legal requirements, as well as concerns about the potential for child abduction and identity theft.
The Joint Commission, a nonprofit that provides health care accreditations, has suggested that hospitals stop providing birth notices to local newspapers for the same reasons.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has suggested that hospitals obtain parental consent and eliminate home addresses and other precise identifying information from birth announcements or stop providing them to media.
Community Health Systems recently (none in Colorado) to stop publicizing the first baby of the year.
“We know the birth of the new year baby is a joyous and exciting event, but protecting patient safety and privacy is our most important responsibility,” said Tomi Galin, a spokeswoman for the Franklin, Tenn.-based company.
Some hospitals keep the tradition alive by getting the parents’ permission before making an announcement and providing only limited information, such as home towns.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
