Indiana sees its first Safe Haven Baby Box surrender of 2024

A Safe Haven Baby Box in Indiana marked the organization’s first safe haven rescue of 2024. 

The rescue occurred at the Georgetown Township Fire Protection District last week. It is the first surrender at that Safe Haven Baby Box, which was installed in December 2022.

The Safe Haven Baby Box organization installs safe, temperature-controlled boxes in fire stations around the country. When a child is placed inside, a silent alarm is immediately triggered, alerting authorities who then tend to the infant within minutes. The boxes are available so that a parent can surrender their child anonymously under their state’s safe haven law; in Indiana, parents can surrender their child in the first 30 days after birth.

Fire Chief William Banta said firefighters responded within two minutes after being notified that an infant was in the box.

“I’m proud that we were able to offer this to you,” Banta said, addressing the infant’s parent. “I get emotional because I know for a fact how tough it is to be a single parent. I was one. I understand the struggles. I had a great support system. The person who did this last week did the right thing and they need to be applauded.”

“Wow, we are so grateful to this birth mother for bravely and sacrificially choosing what she believes to be best for her baby,” Monica Kelsey, founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, said in a news release. “We are honored that she trusted our program to protect her and her infant. We are seeing record numbers of mothers needing our program and we are so eager to meet their needs and be prepared. There is a real beauty in seeing the families made with these babies adopted by amazing families. It is a real chance to rewrite tragedy into a blessing.”

Kelsey also addressed the birth parent during a press conference,

“To the parent who came up to this box last week and surrendered their healthy newborn – thank you,” she said.“I know this does not come without pain.” Kelsey also reminded the parent that there is counseling and medical care available to them which they can access free of charge if they so choose.

According to WDRB, this is the 39th baby box rescue in the country since 2017.

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