Virginia’s first Safe Haven Baby Box has opened at the Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
The baby box was blessed this week after more than a year of planning, and after Carilion hospital staff were trained in how to operate it, WSET reported.
“We want another option for parents. You know we have seen so many infants that have just been abandoned and left to die, on their own, alone with no dignity whatsoever,” says Jessi Getrost, an executive assistant of Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
“This way they are able to go to a temperature-controlled environment where they just get placed in this box, they are warm, they are safe from the elements outside, and quickly they are just scooped up and loved and taken care of by a medical provider on the other side,” Getrost continued.
Baby boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns in unsafe conditions, potentially leaving them to die. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals and can be accessed from outside and inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside. Once the baby is inside the baby box, the outside door locks, and the mother has time to leave before an alarm goes off alerting first responders or hospital staff to the child’s presence.
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 is often quickly adopted.
In Virginia, newborns can be surrendered legally up to 30 days after birth at baby boxes, hospitals, fire stations, and EMS providers, according to the organization.
The hospital told the outlet they hope the baby box is the first of many across the state.
The baby box is located under the hospital in the emergency department parking lot, and there are signs throughout the hospital pointing to its location, according to the report.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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