Safe Haven laws across the U.S. allow a mother to leave a newborn at certain locations if she wants to give up the child. Many of those states have Safe Haven Baby Boxes installed at medical clinics and fire or police stations that allow the baby to be surrendered anonymously. One of them is in Kokomo, Indiana, where Chris Frazier is the fire chief.
"We had an alarm go off in our baby box and we had a mother surrender her daughter into our custody, which is the purpose of the baby boxes," he tells AFN. "We were able to safely take possession of the child and get her medical attention, get her to the hospital, get her with the right authorities, the people who can get this baby where she needs to go."
According to the fire chief, his crew was "very protective" after they opened the box to discover the infant.
"They got the baby, took care of her – [and] you could tell the firefighters were a little bit skeptical of having to give the baby up to the paramedics because they immediately kind of became protective, wanted to make sure this little girl was taken care of," he shares.
While the firemen were overwhelmed emotionally, Frazier is certain they were not the only ones dealing with emotions.
"They're very tough decisions for mothers to make," he acknowledges, "but this just gives them an option to safely surrender the child and not leave it behind a dumpster or abandon it somewhere in a bathroom."
The baby girl, who is doing fine, was the fifth infant this year to be surrendered at a baby box in Indiana. The Kokomo Safe Haven box – one of more than 150 in the state – was dedicated in June 2020. Funding for its purchase and installation was provided by the local chapter of Knights of Columbus.
