Montana’s first Safe Haven Baby Box was blessed on Wednesday in Lockwood.
Nick Anderson, the chaplain for the Montana state firefighters, gave the blessing to officially open the baby box, KTVQ reported.
“I’m very proud of the members of the Lockwood Fire District. I mean, they excel at everything that they do. And having this completed and up and running is just a huge sense of accomplishment,” Fire Chief Branden Stevens said.
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 that 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.
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In Montana, infants up to 30 days old can be legally surrendered face-to-face at fire departments, police departments, and hospitals. Last year, the state’s Safe Haven law was updated to include baby boxes.
“Any time we can bring a resource to moms in need, we’re all about it,” Safe Haven Baby Boxes CEO Monica Kelsey said in May. “And so getting just the first box in the state of Montana is just going to be a huge asset to the parents who may or have been thinking about surrendering their infant but didn’t know exactly how to do it.”
“What we were finding is babies still being dumped across this country, and a lot of these babies were being left at the doors of safe haven locations,” Kelsey said. “We’ve come up with a way that they can still go to the location, but they don’t have to look anyone in the eye, they don’t have to talk to anyone, and they don’t have to be asked any questions.”
Stevens said other fire stations in the state are asking the Lockwood Fire Department how they can install a baby box. Stevens said the effort to bring a baby box to Lockwood began in 2024, spearheaded by Fire Capt. Kevin Sparrow. However, the effort lacked funding.
“He had found an anonymous donor that was paying for this installation of the box, the cost of the box, the cost of the alarm system, everything. He asked if I would be willing to support that. And I mean, how can you not?” Stevens said.
Approximately 60 people in the community gathered to celebrate the opening of the baby box.
“Hopefully it’s just very empty. But, you know, if it ever does need to be used, we’re ready,” Stevens said.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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