The Jessamine County Fire Department is holding a fundraiser to help them install the first Safe Haven baby box in the county.
Leading the effort is the Nicholasville Fire Department’s Fire Marshal and Deputy Chief of Prevention, Josh Bolton.
“There’s nowhere close for parents to safely relinquish their babies without doing it in person or doing something that no one wants to happen, like discard them somewhere,” Bolton said to WKYT
Essentially, a Safe Haven Baby box is a safe and anonymous drop-off for any mother who needs to find a good solution to relinquish their baby.
The boxes are set up at fire stations for first responders to bring the baby to the hospital quickly and safely.
“Safe Haven Baby Boxes’ mission is to prevent illegal abandonment of newborns by raising awareness, offering a 24-hour hotline for mothers in crisis and offering the Safe Haven Baby Boxes as a last resort option for women who want to maintain complete anonymity,” their mission statement said.
This is all in accordance with the Safe Haven laws that are set to help struggling new mothers who cannot take care of their children.
“Beginning in Texas in 1999, “Baby Moses laws” or infant safe haven laws have been enacted as an incentive for mothers in crisis to safely relinquish their babies to designated locations where the babies are protected and provided with medical care until a permanent home is found,” Childwelfare.gov said.
All fire departments are established safe-havens, but the use of the baby box ensures another level of safety and allows an anonymous dropoff.
The box works as soon as the parent opens it. A silent alarm alerts the staff that the box has been opened. Then after the baby is placed in the bassinet, another silent alarm is triggered so they know there is a bay in there. Once the parent has said goodbyes and closed the door, it locks from the outside for the safety of the child, and staff can access the baby only from the inside. From there, they will bring the baby to the nearest hospital.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Inc. was founded by Monika Kelsey in 2016. Kelsey made it her mission to help abandoned infants after discovering she herself was one. A baby box she saw in Cape Town, South Africa, gave inspiration to how she could help prevent the deaths of abandoned babies.
Since the first box was installed in Indiana in April of 2016, there have been no dead abandoned infants in the state of Indiana, their website reported.
Bolton is looking to establish that in Jessamine County.
“A lot of people really don’t want to do that in person, so this is a good, safe option where they can do it anonymously, and nobody’s ever the wiser,” Bolton said to the Jessamine Journal.
Currently, there are no boxes installed in Central Kentucky. The nearest ones are located in Louisville, Corbin and Danville. Bolton wants something more accessible to residents and wants one to be built at the Brannon Road Fire Department.
“Me and my wife, we’re actually foster parents, so children are a big part of my life and I can’t stand to see if anything bad happens to any of them,” Bolton told WKYT.
With recent cases of a Kentucky infant found dead in a house, a cheerleader abandoning her newborn in a hospital trash can and numerous babies being found in dumpsters, Safe Haven is an alternative.
“In the past few years, with access to abortion becoming practically non-existent due to law, many do not want children have been placed in tough situations,” The Jessamine Journal said.
Bolton and his department are looking to raise the $16,000 necessary for the box. The box is $11,000, and the other $5,000 is for the cost of alarms, installation and additional expenses.
“If it’s ever put in and we never use it, that’d be great, but if it just saves one baby’s life in 40 years or whatever, I think it’s well worth all the expense and time it takes to do this process,” Bolton added.
After they raise the necessary funds, WKYT said it would take a little over two months for the box to be fully operational.