The Central Fire Station in Olde Towne Slidell, Louisiana is about to become home to the state’s first Safe Haven Baby Box, according to WWL-TV New Orleans. Tammany Fire District 1 Chief Chris Kauffmann announced that a baby box will be installed outside of the fire station. We hope we never have an infant put in this box,” Kauffmann said. But if there’s that one mother that says I can’t do this, they have a location.
Baby boxes were developed to discourage parents from abandoning their newborns in dangerous conditions, which could result in the baby’s death. These incubators are temperature-controlled and are often built into the exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals that can be accessed from the inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns within these boxes. Once a baby is inside the box, the outside door locks, giving the mother time to leave before an alarm alerts first responders or hospital staff to the child’s presence.
The infant is then quickly removed and taken to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the infant is typically placed into state custody and is often adopted quickly. Slidell City Councilman Trey Brownfield said that the fundraising campaign for the baby box was initiated following authorities discovering the body of a newborn baby in a dumpster at a Slidell apartment complex in 2015, according to the report.
You always see in the news, there’s a baby found on the side of the road, there’s a baby found here and there and it’s very disheartening when you hear those things,” Brownfield said. But in Slidell, there’s an alternative.
Louisiana’s Safe Haven law allows parents to legally relinquish custody of a newborn up to 60 days old, and permits infant surrender without fear of prosecution at emergency designated facilities such as hospitals, firehouses, and police stations. This year, state lawmakers amended the Safe Haven Law to allow for the use of baby boxes at those locations, according to the report.
The box will contain an orange resource bag inside that contains information such as how to obtain mental health counseling. This is an opportunity for you to safely let the baby live,” Brownfield said. As of early October, organizers had raised approximately ten percent of the $22,000 needed to purchase the baby box. They hope the baby box will be installed by the end of the year.