A baby hatch is a place where mothers can bring their babies, usually newborn, an leave them anonymously in a safe place to be found and cared for. This kind of arrangement was common in mediaeval times and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the device was known as a foundling wheel. Foundling wheels were taken out of use in the late 1800s but a modern form, the baby hatch, began to be introduced again from 1996 and since 2000 has come into use in many countries, notably in Germany where there are around 80 hatches today.