T he baby arrived at Sofie’s house at 7pm on a Friday night, along with a few bags of clothes, toys, nappies and food. No one had fed her since that morning. The case worker sat on Sofie’s couch, commenting on the decor.

Sofie*, an early childhood educator, did not know the baby well. The Melbourne childcare centre where she worked had agreed to enrol the then months’ old baby after a request from child protection, who hoped daycare would provide some stability while they worked with the baby’s mother. The baby had only attended a handful of days. Sofie had occasionally given her a cuddle in passing.

But the baby’s name reminded Sofie of her own adult daughter. Perhaps that was partly why, less than four hours earlier, a phone call to the childcare centre had made her so upset.

The voice on the line was a child protection worker. Would someone there be able to look after baby Lily* for the weekend?

“I said, ‘no, we are not working here Saturday and Sunday’,” Sofie says.…