Louisiana Fire Station to Install Safe Haven Baby Box
The Central Fire Station in Olde Towne Slidell, Louisiana, will house the state’s first Safe Haven Baby Box, WWL-TV New Orleans reported.
“We hope we never have an infant put in this box,” Tammany Fire District 1 Chief Chris Kauffmann said. “But if there’s that one mother that says I can’t do this, they have a location.”
“The baby, once you close the box, they can’t get access back to the baby, so the baby’s in a safe environment, it’s climate controlled, the baby’s safe until someone can get to the box and retrieve the baby,” he explained.
Slidell City Councilman Trey Brownfield said, “You always see in the news, there’s a baby found on the side of the road, there’s a baby found here and there and it’s very disheartening when you hear those things. But in Slidell, there’s an alternative.”
Baby boxes allow mothers to surrender their infants in a safe and legal manner. Once the baby is inside the box, the outside door locks. The mother has time to leave before first responders are alerted to the infant’s presence.
The Louisiana Safe Haven law allows babies up to 60 days old to be surrendered.
