A third infant has been surrendered to the Safe Haven Baby Box at Fire Station #1 in Madison, Alabama, according to officials.
Fire medics evaluated the baby at the station and transferred the infant to Madison Hospital for further evaluation, AL.com reported, citing an announcement from the City of Madison. City officials did not release when the child was surrendered or the sex of the child “in order to preserve the child and mother’s anonymity,” according to the report.
The surrender marks the third since the box was opened in January 2024. The Safe Haven Baby Box at the Madison Fire Station is the first one to be installed in the state.
Baby boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns, potentially leaving them to die. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals that can be accessed from inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside. Then, the outside door locks, and mothers have time to get away before an alarm goes off alerting first responders or hospital staff inside.
The baby is then quickly removed and sent to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the baby is usually placed into state custody and often quickly adopted.
In June 2023, the Alabama Legislature expanded the state’s existing Safe Haven law to authorize Safe Haven Baby Boxes and to allow the surrender of infants up to 45 days old.
The first infant was surrendered to the Madison Fire Station baby box less than two weeks after it was installed. A second baby was surrendered less than a month later.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
