A Safe Haven Baby Box sits inside the garage at Bargersville Fire Department Station 201 last week. The baby box is the third to be installed in Johnson County.
Photo provided by Bargersville Fire
The third Safe Haven Baby Box in Johnson County is now close to a reality.
Workers began installing a Safe Haven Baby Box at Bargersville Community Fire Department Station 201 last week. The box, located at the station on State Road 135, is a safe and secure way for parents to surrender babies they feel they cannot care for.
Under Indiana law, parents may surrender a child at any baby box anonymously and without fear of prosecution as long as the baby is under 1 month old. A parent may not regain custody once they surrender the child.
To use the box, parents pull a lever on the outside, which opens the box. They then put the infant in the bassinet inside the box and close the lid. The box has a light source and is temperature controlled, so an infant is safe and comfortable in any weather condition until firefighters are able to rescue it.
Parents may also call the Safe Haven hotline at 866-99BABY1, but they are not required to do so under state law.
When the parent closes the lid on the box, they have about 60 seconds to leave the area before an alarm goes off alerting local authorities that a child has been surrendered. Once the lid is closed, the child is considered abandoned. After the child is taken for medical treatment, they are then placed in the custody of the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Over 130 baby boxes have been installed in Indiana, and Bargersville Fire’s baby box will be the third in Johnson County. The first box opened in 2020 at White River Township Fire Station No. 53, 366 N. Morgantown Road, Greenwood. In 2021, a box opened at Franklin Fire Station No. 22, 1800 Thornburg Lane.
A baby box was proposed in Edinburgh, but town officials ultimately opted to not go through with it. They had expressed concerns with the contract agreement they would have to sign with Safe Haven. They still wanted a baby box, just not through that vendor, town officials said.
Bargersville Fire officials have been working on getting the Safe Haven box for about six months, securing some funding assistance from the Johnson County Health Department. This past March, officials said they expected the box to be installed at the station by July.
The health department used some of its public health preparedness funds to help the fire department get the box, said Betsy Swearingen, health department director.
The baby box was delivered to Bargersville Fire about a month ago, with workers starting installation last Thursday. The box, including installation, costs around $20,000. The plan was to have it completely in place by Christmas, said Mike Pruitt, deputy fire chief.
Once installed, a security company will come in to set up the connection that alerts firefighters to someone surrendering a baby in the box, he said.
Baby boxes are often in fire stations because they are a safe area that is staffed 24/7, 365 days a year. These boxes are important because of the option it gives mothers who may not be able to financially afford a baby, or be able to keep them due to a variety of other reasons, Swearingen said.
“It gives them a safe alternative,” she said. “And then it ensures that the baby will hopefully be placed into a situation where it will thrive in the future.”
Pruitt recalled an incident that occurred several years ago when he was a firefighter on the west side of Indianapolis where a person dropped off a baby in a trash can across the street from the fire station. He believed the person didn’t know they could have given it to firefighters, he said.
Fortunately, someone heard the baby in the trash can and notified authorities. They were able to save the baby, Pruitt said.
”We don’t want people to make a choice like that,” he said. “We want them to understand that there’s a safe, anonymous way, no questions asked, to be able to surrender their baby.”
If other grant opportunities become available for baby boxes, Swearingen hopes other fire departments will reach out and grab them. It would be ideal to have a baby box at all of the county’s fire stations, or at least spread consistently through the county for the women who may need them, she said.
“The more options the better,” Swearingen said.
Pruitt says the new baby box at Station 201 is not just for people in the Bargersville area, but for anyone who feels they need to surrender their child.
“I think anytime that we can install these boxes, we’re doing a service to the community,” Pruitt said.
A public blessing ceremony for the new baby box will take place after the new year, he said.
