This scoping review examines the history and application of birth alerts in Canada, from social work, legal, policy, and social justice lenses. In Canada, child welfare authorities developed a practice commonly known as birth alerts. This evolved across the country in an uneven fashion but has certainly been active since the early 2000s. There are many criticisms including causing undue trauma with children and families and disrupting early attachment as well as focus on Indigenous women in Canada as an example of racial bias (Doenmez et al. 2022). Since the release of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Women and Girls (2019) report, provinces and territories have ended the practice. Literature reviewed examine birth alerts, pre-birth child welfare involvement and child welfare involvement at the birth of a child. Primarily, Canadian sources are used; however, countries with similar child welfare structures such as Australia, the UK, and the USA are considered. Studies using various methods have been included: qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method, systematic reviews, grey literature, and case law. This review uses the JBI Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methods for scoping reviews (Peters et al. 2015).