With the snip of a ribbon on June 13, the City of Springfield welcomed the ninth Safe Haven Baby Box in Tennessee, providing an alternative and penalty-free option for parents who wish to safely surrender their newborn.

 The mission behind the Safe Haven Baby Box is to prevent newborns from being abandoned in ways that may harm them. Many infants are discarded in dumpsters, alongside highways, and in remote areas by parents attempting to avoid prosecution. By ensuring anonymity for the mother, Safe Haven Baby Boxes protect the welfare of the baby and prevent illegal infant abandonment.  

Located On Bradley Drive at the City of Springfield’s David N. Greer Fire Station No. 2., the newly installed Safe Haven Baby Box was funded via private donations and is an infant incubator secured behind a door built into the station’s exterior wall. The door opens to an air temperature-controlled bassinet equipped with a silent alarm system that is triggered when the box is opened, notifying first responders within minutes. Once notified, first responders immediately take custody of the infant and provide emergency medical care before the child is placed into protective services.

Pam Stenzel, Development and Outreach Director of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, describes one additional feature of the box.

“A bright orange bag is designed to fall out when the door is opened, and it contains legal information pertinent to the state in which they're surrendering,” Pam explains. “It tells parents what's going to happen to the baby, the number of days they will have to reconsider their decision and reunify with their child should they desire to do so, as well as the phone numbers for appropriate agencies to assist them.”  

 Additionally, the bag contains basic medical information (since most surrendering mothers do not deliver in the hospital) as well as national hotline numbers for assistance in situations such as human trafficking or domestic violence.

Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Inc. was founded in 2016 by Indiana native Monica Kelsey after learning she had been abandoned herself as an infant and after witnessing a "Baby Box" in operation at a church in Cape Town, South Africa. 

In addition to leasing the boxes and providing upkeep and training for their utilization, the Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization operates a national24-hour hotline, offering counseling and assistance free of charge. To date, the hotline has received over 9,000 calls from across the United States, and counselors have referred over 500 women to crisis pregnancy centers.  Since its inception, 47 babies have been surrendered in Safe Haven Baby Boxes, with an additional three babies surrendered directly to firefighters at Safe Haven Baby Box locations. 

In the United States, the issue of child abandonment is more prevalent than most people realize, as annually over 7,000 infants are illegally abandoned. In 1999, this issue led to the passing of the first Safe Haven law in Texas, with the majority of states following suit by adopting subsequent versions of the law.  Safe Haven laws allow mothers to surrender newborns to facilities such as hospitals and police stations without the risk of prosecution.

 While these laws have reduced the number of abandoned infants, they do not provide anonymity for the mother, as the child must be placed in the arms of a recipient. The complexity of this requirement often dissuades mothers from seeking out safe facilities.

 Further complicating the matter, states have vastly different regulations regarding drop-off locations and age requirements for surrendered infants, in addition to varying protections for parents who test positive for illegal substances. In essence, Safe Haven laws often are not tailored for the communities most likely to use them. Low-income areas are disproportionately impacted by the types of crises that might lead to infant abandonment, including poverty or financial hardship, domestic violence, housing instability, as well as a lack of treatment for substance abuse or mental illness.

 With the installation of 243 Safe Haven Baby Boxes across the U.S., illegal abandonment rates have dropped, and communities have come together to support parents in crisis. In Springfield, that’s something to celebrate.