Ceremony blesses De Queen baby box
DE QUEEN, Ark. — No shame. No blame. No name.
These are the things Safe Haven Baby Box founder and CEO Monica Kelsey wants a struggling young woman to know about the baby boxes designed to protect surrendered newborns.
Kelsey was in De Queen on Friday for a ceremony letting the public know about the baby box installed at the new Sevier County Medical Center.
“We are saving babies with these boxes,” Kelsey said.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes is a legal surrender option for mothers in crisis. The box features three silent alarms alerting first responders to the presence of a surrendered infant. The baby will be attended to within five minutes and taken into the hospital for medical evaluation. Four surrenders have occurred already this year, Kelsey said.
The baby box in De Queen is the 138th box installed in the United States.
“We’re just getting started with these,” Kelsey said. “Women are allowing us to walk alongside them anonymously, and they’re saving the lives of their children.”
She credited Sevier County for being proactive and installing the box.
Kelsey founded Safe Haven Baby Boxes because of her own personal story.
“In August of 1972, a young girl was attacked in Ohio. She found out she was pregnant. She gave birth in April of 1973 and abandoned the child. That child was me,” Kelsey said.
Kelsey said she has met her birth mother. “That meeting gave me empathy. We want to let women know there is no shame and no judgment here.”
SCMC Administrator Lori House said it is a “privilege” for the hospital in De Queen to have one of the Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
“We realize that not all pregnancies happen under the best circumstances,”
she said.
House said the community contributed to the project through donations to the SCMC Foundation.
De Queen pastor Ray Reynolds blessed the box during Friday’s ceremony.
In addition to educating citizens on the Safe Haven Law, Safe Haven Baby Boxes provides free confidential counseling via their hotline, 1-866-99BABY1. A bag including information on resources is in the box for any mother who leaves an infant. The materials inform the mother she is following the law and has support of the medical and law enforcement communities, Kelsey said.
“We want peace for the mom,” she said.