Rowan County just became the home of one of the Commonwealth’s newest Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
Officials call baby boxes the last resort option for mothers in crisis. The makers of the boxes said they’re easy to use and secure. All a parent has to do is find a box, open the door, place the baby inside and close the door. From there an alarm is activated and within minutes, emergency responders open the box from the other side and begin assessing the infant.
The box at 200 American Legion Way in Morehead is the 61st one in the state. The effort to bring it to the community was picked up by the Morehead Rowan County Chamber of Tourism and Economic Development’s Leadership Academy.
“They partnered with Kentucky Right to Life and East Kentucky Right to life to be able to bring the baby box here to Morehead Rowan County, a college town that’s a hub for so much. Great location to be able to host it here,” said Chamber President and CEO Jason Slone.
At the recent dedication and blessing, he highlighted those partnerships, thanking many different people and organizations for their efforts to make the baby box a reality.
Kentucky lawmakers were among them. Former state representative Addia Wuchner is now the Executive Director of Kentucky Right to Life and its Foundation. She said lawmakers unanimously passed House Bill 155, which governs newborn safety devices like baby boxes.
“A hundred votes in the house, all 38 yes votes in the senate, it passed, was signed by the governor. As we say on the boxes, ‘No shame, no blame’. There was no blame, everyone came together, just like this community does,” said Wuchner. “It brings the community, it brought the General Assembly together, to say ‘This is what we want for Kentucky.’”
No Shame, No Blame, No Name. A motto of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, which allow parents to anonymously surrender infants. Wuchner said it’s critical to provide this option for individuals in crisis.
“Every time we’ve seen a child placed, we know that there is evidence that this child was loved. But, it wasn’t the right time or there was a crisis in their lives that it wasn’t the right time for that mom to be a parent and she makes a loving choice when she chooses this. So, right here in a college town, in a community, in a secluded place, she can make that decision privately,” said Wuchner.
Wuchner said without options like baby boxes, heartbreaking cases of abandonment are more likely to occur than a secure surrender.
“We all know the stories of, like on the steps of the Bowling Green Fire Department where a child was left, or the story I told about Molly when the nights grow too long and too cold or even horrific stories of children found in landfills. None of us want that for a Kentucky child. Nor do we want, think about a mom who might read that story later that her child wasn’t found and it was too late,” said Wuchner.
Bowling Green now also has a baby box for the community. Morehead’s baby box, installed at Rowan County EMS Station 1, opens into the office of EMS Director Homer Lewis. He said the process for his team is pretty straight forward.
“So, the safe haven law has been in effect for several years and we’ve always had packets that had information. But that was more or less a mother coming in and handing you the child and there was some information we filled out. This is an anonymous version but the practice is still the same. There’s still some packets in there that we have to fill out but basically we’re going to take the infant, if someone turns one in, and it’s going to go to the hospital,” said Lewis.
Lewis said from there, the hospital, social services, and law enforcement officials take over. As for the time they spend in the baby box, Morehead Rowan County Chamber President Jason Slone said infants are warm, safe, and secure, with the boxes having gone through rigorous testing.
“Today we did that test and it was our final test before we could actually do the dedication and from the time that we placed our make believe baby in the bassinet and we closed the door and it locked, the call came in to our E-911 in one minute and 27 seconds,” said Slone.
The final piece of the puzzle is making sure people know that this is an option when they find themselves in what feels like an impossible situation. So, the legislature came back together to mandate that signage be posted in every high school in the Commonwealth, directing people to the Safe Haven Baby Box emergency phone number. Addia Wuchner with Kentucky Right to Life said that kind of awareness is critical, because these services have far reaching impacts.
“One of the fire chiefs said to me and I always say this. He said ‘You know, we know every girl in the town, we know every girl that may be pregnant.’ It may not be the girl that lives right here. But it may be the girl that lives down the river or in the next town or the next hillside.”
Kentucky’s Safe Infants Act allows parents to leave babies younger than 30 days old at a designated safe place. No one will call the police or ask questions. The Safe Haven Baby Box 24-hour hotline can be reached at 1-866-99BABY1. For WMKY, I’m Samantha Morrill.
