Long Beach on track to be first in Mississippi to provide Safe Haven baby box
After clearing several legal hurdles, Long Beach is set to make history as the first city in the state of Mississippi to provide help and safe harbor for newborns in the area through the use of a Safe Haven baby box (SHBB). Baby boxes are being used throughout the nation to provide a safe place for people to anonymously surrender newborns they are unable to care for.
After Long Beach aldermen approved an agreement with SHBB at their February 21 meeting, City leaders finalized and signed a contract with SHBB on Friday, March 24. The new ordinance allows for infants to be legally surrendered by a parent and clears the way for installation and use of the baby box in Long Beach.
Local resident Caitlin Kelly, a nurse who has also fostered and adopted children herself, is the driving force behind South Mississippi’s SHBB program.
“The baby box will be the first of its kind in Mississippi. This first box will be located in Central Fire Station on Klondyke Road,” Kelly says. “We are in the process now of raising funds.”
Kelly says once the funds are met, it could take three to four months for the box to be made and then installed, so it’s very feasible that the state’s first baby box will be operating in the Friendly City before the end of this year.
As for how baby boxes work, Kelly says, “The box itself is located inside a fire station, police station or hospital. It contains a silent alarm that activates as soon as the mother or parent opens the box. A second sensor activates once the infant is laid into the medical-grade bassinet. EMS/911 dispatch is activated upon the box opening. Once the child is obtained by EMS, they will go to the local hospital, where the child will be medically evaluated. At this time, Child Protection Services is contacted, and measures are then taken to proceed with adoptive placement.”
Kelly says there are one hundred forty boxes throughout the United States, as well as a hotline that is manned twenty-four hours a day to support and assist those in crisit.
“The number one way to let women know of this Safe Haven option is by raising awareness that the hotline exists, as well as the box, which is a last resort,” says Kelly.
The hotline number is 866-99BABY1 (866-992-2291).
Long Beach Ward 6 Alderman Pete McGoey is among those in full support of the SHBB program.
“Since taking my seat on the Long Beach Board of Aldermen, there hasn’t been an issue I am more passionate about than Safe Haven baby boxes,” McGoey said. “In lieu of the recent overturning of Roe vs. Wade, this provides an alternative for women unable to keep possession of their newborns, for whatever reason – the opportunity to anonymously and safety relinquish the child under safe, healthy and climate-controlled conditions where prompt attention will be afforded. Twenty-eight babies have been abandoned in these units nationwide, and I shudder to entertain what dispositions they may have met had these [baby boxes] not been in place.”
Monica Kelsey, an abandoned infant herself, founded the 501(c) 3 non-profit Safe Haven Baby Boxes in Indiana in 2015 in an effort to save unwanted newborns whose parents, for whatever reason, want to surrender the child. The first baby box was put into operation in 2016.
“She [Kelsey] was an abandoned baby herself in Indiana back in the 1970s, and she has made it her mission that the Safe Haven organization’s primary goal is to raise awareness for Safe Haven Law,” Kelly says. “SHBB’s national, twenty-four-hour hotline affords mothers assistance free of charge. To date, this hotline has helped more than 8,000 women from every state in the United States. They have referred over five hundred women to crisis centers and have assisted in over one hundred twenty legal, safe infant surrenders. Six of those babies have been surrendered just this year.”
The state of Mississippi already has a Safe Haven law, which allows children to be surrendered within seven days after their birth, and House Bill 1318, which was recently approved by both the Mississippi House of Representatives and the State Senate, is expected to soon be signed into law by Governor Tate Reeves, to expand those seven days to forty-five.
“One major change of the law is a mother or parent is able to surrender a child forty-five days and younger without the fear of prosecution,” Kelly says. “The law also states that Safe Haven baby boxes can be utilized anywhere in the state. This is huge. For the first time in the state of Mississippi, women and parents have an anonymous option to safely surrender a child.”
Kelly says she hopes it won’t be long before other cities also install baby boxes. As for the baby box in Long Beach, fundraising is well underway for the project and [as of press time] has almost reached the halfway point to its $20,000 fundraising goal.”
“All donations are tax deductible,” Kelly says. “If any business wants to donate, they can make out a check to Safe Haven Baby Boxes and put Long Beach, Mississippi in the memo line. They can then email me at caitlin.kelly1@gmail.com, and I will collect the check.”
Meanwhile, Kelly says she hopes the community will learn more about the program and its benefits by visiting Safe Haven Baby Boxes’ website at SHBB.org.
