A baby was saved from abandonment last week in Kokomo, Indiana when a mother surrendered her baby to authorities.
WRTV Indianapolis reports Firefighters found the baby girl on July 17 inside a safe haven baby box at Kokomo Fire Station #1. She is the fifth baby surrendered under the state safe haven law this year, according to the report.
“The mother made the loving decision to make sure her daughter was safe and was given excellent medical care by Kokomo Firefighters and St Vincent/Ascension Paramedics,” said Kokomo Fire Chief Chris Frazier.
Frazier thanked the baby girl’s mother for making a difficult but brave choice for her daughter.
“Although these were difficult choices to make, we applaud the mother for giving her daughter a chance at life through an anonymous, safe and legal option,” Frazier said.
The fire station installed a specially designed box in 2020 with the help of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, according to the report. The boxes include cushioning and a silent alarm to protect the baby until authorities can take care of the child.
Local authorities did not provide further details about the baby, but each surrendered baby is immediately taken to a hospital for medical treatment and placed in the care of the state until an adoptive family is found.
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Monica Kelsey, who was abandoned as a baby and later adopted, founded the Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization in 2015 to educate and advocate for safe haven and baby box laws across the US
“We are so grateful to this birth mother for the brave and loving surrender of her baby. It’s a joy to each and every time we get a call saying we have a baby in a box,” he told the news outlet. “When we’re ready to help women in crisis, we’re going to affect a lot. A family that’s anxiously waiting for a baby to adopt has changed their life forever for the better.
Her organization also operates a 24-hour hotline (1-866-99BABY1) to give women the opportunity to speak with a trained professional as they consider whether it is safe to give up their baby.
All 50 states have safe haven laws that allow mothers to safely surrender their newborns to authorities, usually at a police station or hospital, without questions or repercussions as long as the baby is unharmed. Usually, laws allow safe surrender within a certain time limit, such as up to 30 days after the baby’s birth.
According to research by the Centers for Disease Control“Since 1999, when Texas became the first state to enact Safe Haven Laws, an estimated 4,100 babies have been safely surrendered nationwide.”
