The first ever Safe Haven Baby Box in Woodburn, Indiana is a gift that keeps on giving. Last week, a baby was placed in the box on the side of the Woodburn Fire Department, in accordance with state Safe Haven laws, and safely surrendered.
Monica Kelsey, founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, celebrated this at the Woodburn Fire Department recently. “A selfless parent chose to surrender – legally, safely, lovingly – their infant late last week,” she told locals and members of the press, according to WANE. “The team and our staff worked it flawlessly. This isn’t our first rodeo with surrenders. We have had 52 babies in boxes and 153 babies handed over so over 200 babies have come through the baby box program. They are kind of experts on this even without me here.”
The occasion was particularly momentous, as “this is where our vision became reality,” Kelsey said according to WTHR of the Woodburn Fire Department location. “It is an honor to have this mother trust us and we know she loves her baby immensely.”
Kelsey founded Safe Haven Baby Boxes in 2016 after she learned that she had been abandoned as an infant, with the hope of preventing new mothers in desperate situations from illegally abandoning their infants in unsafe places.
“This community took a chance on me, and they said, ‘let’s go ahead and do this because it’s the right thing to do,’” she told WPTA. “This became home of Safe Haven Baby Box number one in the nation. There was no other baby box when this one was put in. And now here we are a little over eight years later and this box has paid for itself.”
READ: Arkansas dedicates $250,000 to creation of Safe Haven Baby Boxes
Having a safe and legal place to abandon an infant is intended to prevent needless tragic deaths. As Live Action News has reported, a premature baby with a still-attached umbilical cord was recently discovered in Texas. However, another premature baby in Texas was discovered deceased. One baby in Florida was left on a doorstop with a heartbreaking note – “His dad tried to kill us” – which showed the tragic circumstances into which he was born.
The boxes are simple and safe to use. Informational videos from the organization show that all a birth mother needs to do to surrender her infant safely, anonymously, and legally is to approach a Safe Haven Baby Box, place the infant in the temperature-controlled box, take the provided orange bag with helpful resources for her, and walk away. The box will lock, a silent alarm will sound from the inside, and the baby will receive assistance in under two minutes.
If a mother or father changes her or his mind, that parent will have 30-45 days to request to regain custody.
The organization also provides resources for parents in crisis — a hotline for parents to call if necessary, education about bringing Safe Haven Baby Boxes to your locale, including the legal advocacy it requires, and information about current Safe Haven Laws in each state (for example, only face-to-face surrender is allowed in many states such as California, New York, Louisiana, Virginia, and Georgia, to name a few.) It also provides training for local first responders in their state’s Safe Haven laws and how to receive an abandoned baby.
For Kelsey, saving a baby at the very first box is a full-circle moment for her. “Here we are now eight years later, and I couldn’t be more thankful and more blessed to be the front runner in this movement and for Woodburn, Indiana, to be the community that started it all,” she said.
And though the organization has now helped save babies all over the country, it started as just a small idea. “I had no idea it was going to be this big,” she says. “To be completely honest I just wanted to save a few babies in Indiana.”
