Montana is set to receive its first Safe Haven Baby Box, a device designed to help fight infant abandonment.
The baby box is set to be unveiled in June in Billings, NBC Montana reported. The report did not specify an exact location.
“Any time we can bring a resource to moms in need, we’re all about it,” Safe Haven Baby Boxes CEO Monica Kelsey told the outlet. “And so getting just the first box in the state of Montana is just going to be a huge asset to the parents who may or have been thinking about surrendering their infant but didn’t know exactly how to do it.”
Baby boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns in unsafe conditions, potentially leaving them to die. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals that can be accessed from outside and inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside. Once the baby is inside the baby box the outside door locks and the mother has time to leave before an alarm goes off alerting first responders or hospital staff to the child’s presence.
RELATED: Third Infant Surrendered to New Mexico Safe Haven Baby Box
The baby is then quickly removed and sent to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the baby is usually placed into state custody and is often quickly adopted.
In Montana, infants up to 30 days old can be legally surrendered face-to-face at fire departments, police departments, and hospitals. Last year, the state’s Safe Haven law was updated to include baby boxes, according to the report.
“What we were finding is babies still being dumped across this country, and a lot of these babies were being left at the doors of safe haven locations,” Kelsey said. “We’ve come up with a way that they can still go to the location, but they don’t have to look anyone in the eye, they don’t have to talk to anyone, and they don’t have to be asked any questions.”
