As a bill about newborn safety devices advances to the Indiana Senate, a new Democratic state representative shared how his personal experience inspired him to co-author the bill.
The bill, authored by Rep. Randall Frye, R-Greensburg, outlines that the baby box be installed at fire departments or other facilities staffed by emergency medical providers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
When the device is opened, an alarm will connect with 911 system and call for emergency medical services to the location, and promises anonymity for the person placing the infant in the box. Once a baby is placed inside the box, which is ventilated and temperature controlled, it locks from the outside so that only medical personnel can take the baby out to assist it.
Rep. Mike Andrade, D-Munster, a co-author of the bill, said it gives the option to safely help a baby instead of leaving a baby outside a firehouse or, as he’s heard from fire department officials, in trash cans at truck stops.
“You hear those stories, and this bill gives somebody an option,” Andrade said. “They don’t know what else to do with this baby, and so it gives them an option to be able to put this baby in one of these safe haven boxes and then this baby now has the change of survival.”
As he thought about the option this bill offers, Andrade said he became emotional thinking about his mother when she was pregnant with him some 40 years ago. His mother, an immigrant, had him four months premature, Andrade said.
His mother did not have options for care in the situation, he said, and while Andrade survived developmental complications as a baby, it would’ve been helpful if his mother could’ve met with a doctor to talk about the different ways to help her child.
“I go back to that story because … just imagine thinking how a young lady does not know what to do, she gets pregnant, she’s scared, she’s got all these emotions … and so that’s why I think this bill is so important now that it’s going to be able to give somebody an option to be able to put that baby in a Safe Haven box so that somebody else will be able to take care of that baby and give it tender love and care,” Andrade said.
When the bill passed out of the House last month, Frye issued a statement that the state’s safe haven law allows a parent to surrender an infant 30 days after its birth to any hospital emergency room, fire station, police station or a Safe Haven Baby Box.
“This bill will help save the lives of newborn babies and serves as a last resort for a parent in crisis,” Frye said in the statement. “While we hope it’s never used, this is a safe, anonymous choice for distraught parents or caregivers to leave a newborn in the care of emergency responders.”
The bill passed out of the house Feb. 2 in a 95-0 vote, and will be discussed Monday by the Senate Family and Children Services Committeey.
There are 59 Safe Haven Baby Boxes in the state, including Hammond, East Chicago, Gary, Crown Point, Hobart, Lake Station, Lowell and Merrillville, according to Safe Haven Baby Boxes. There are also baby boxes in Portage and Valparaiso, according to the organization.
Rep. Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point, is also a co-author of the bill because she’s “always been a strong proponent of” baby boxes. Olthoff said she wanted to co-author the bill because while Lake County has baby boxes, more of them should be located throughout the state.
But, Olthoff said, this bill goes above and beyond by requiring that the baby boxes be placed at locations with medical providers nearby and the alarm system will ensure that the baby gets help quickly.
“You have to make sure someone is there. There was a lot of discussion about that, to make sure there is coverage,” Olthoff said. “I don’t think this will have a problem at the Senate.”
The bill gives nonprofit organizations guidance on where to set up the boxes, from fire departments to any location with medical service providers staffed around the clock, Andrade said. The boxes would be funded by nonprofit organizations, he said.
Monica Kelsey, founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, said the organization supports the bill because women want anonymity when leaving their babies at a safe location.
“Anonymity is only offered through a baby box or safety device like ours. Women today are abandoning their children outside of safe haven locations,” Kelsey said. “You look at these women going all the way to safe haven locations but laying their babies at the doorstep, you have to ask yourself why are they not knocking on the door and handing the child to a person,” Kelsey said.
Statistics show these women want their babies to be safe and not have to leave them outside, but they want anonymity, she said. The bill goes further, Kelsey said, by ensuring that a medical professional is “on the other side of that box.”
“This baby is going to get a response from medical personnel. Having a firefighter on the other side, who is also an EMT, or a paramedic on the other side, these babies are getting immediate medical care,” Kelsey said.
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