First Safe Haven Baby Box in Pennsylvania Comes to LGH

Monica Kelsey has made it her life’s mission to ensure abandoned newborn babies are given the chance to survive and thrive.

The founder of Indiana-based nonprofit Safe Haven Baby Boxes has traveled the country attempting to strengthen safe-haven laws in states, allowing parents to give up their newborn child without legal repercussions. Kelsey has also helped revive the historical practice of baby hatches, or locations where parents can leave their unwanted babies anonymously and safely.

Leaders from Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health gathered last week in the Trauma & Emergency Department at Lancaster General Hospital for the dedication and blessing of the first Safe Haven Baby Box in the state during a private ceremony.

The baby box is located on the Duke Street side of the newly renovated emergency and trauma department at LGH.

Kelsey said the baby box is not the first option for a parent looking to give up their newborn but is meant to be an option of last resort for the child. But she said the baby box is there for a mother to have the opportunity to make the decision for herself to safely give her child away while providing them the anonymity they may need.

It’s the same option her own mother needed when Kelsey was abandoned by her mother in a small Ohio hospital two hours after she was born in April of 1973.

“Today in Lancaster, I’m giving women this option that my birth mother did not have,” Kelsey said. “To the parents in Lancaster and beyond, I did this for you. I took my pain and my story and made something good from it.”

Baby Box

The Safe Haven Baby Box in Lancaster marks the 134th box Kelsey’s organization has installed across the country. The first baby box was installed in 2016 at her former fire station in Woodburn, Ind. where she worked as a firefighter medic.

A total of 23 newborns have been placed in Safe Haven boxes since November of 2017 across nine different states in both hospitals and fire stations. The organization has also helped facilitate 125 handoffs of newborns in hospitals, fire stations and police stations.

Kelsey said her organization runs a crisis hotline with licensed counselors on staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week for parents thinking about abandoning their newborn. All the boxes have resources printed on the front of the door, providing a number to call for the hotline and other information for parents regarding safe-haven laws.

The box itself is built into the wall of the hospital and features a door that automatically locks once the baby is placed inside a bassinet. The box is heated with a climate control device to keep the baby comfortable, and an alarm system is activated in the emergency room once a child is placed inside.

During the current renovations of LGH, a special section inside the emergency room was created to house the baby box in a high-traffic area. A full cabinet system with medical supplies was also installed underneath the baby box.

Kelsey said the current baby box design was instituted in 2019 after three years of development. Safe Haven has patented the design of the box.

Each box is manufactured in Fort Wayne, Ind. by two employees, with one creating the polypropylene plastic outer shell of the box and another installing the internal electronics. Kelsey said a box takes two to three days to manufacture, including 17 hours for the shell and about nine hours for the electronics.

The average cost is about $15,000 to manufacture and install a baby box. The Safe Haven organization continues to maintain the boxes, she said, and they’re tested once a week to make sure they’re in proper working order. Workers return at least once a year to perform maintenance.

Kelsey said the biggest advantage to the baby boxes as compared to traditional bassinets kept at the front entrance of most hospitals to give up a child is the anonymity it gives to parents. She said many of the parents don’t want to walk into a building to give up a child because they may be questioned or may feel shame.

“They don’t have to look anyone in the eye, but they can still save the life of their child,” Kelsey said. “So, when we save a child in a box, we’re actually saving two people – a mother from prosecution and a child from abandonment.”

Activism

Kelsey’s own journey to activism for abandoned children came from her own life experience.

Her 17-year-old birth mother was attacked and raped in August of 1972, left along the side of a road to die. Her rapist was eventually arrested and charged, but she found out she was pregnant.

The mother of Kelsey’s birth mother advised her to have an abortion in a back-alley abortion facility in October of 1972, but as she stood in front of the abortionist she changed her mind and decided to have the child. She was hidden for the remainder of her pregnancy before giving up her newborn baby at a hospital.

Kelsey said baby hatches used to be more common up until the early 1900s when foundling wheels were located at Catholic churches, allowing a woman to put her baby through a door that was passed off to a nun.

She was exposed to a more modern version in 2013 when she was in Cape Town, South Africa on a speaking tour. Kelsey said she just happened to be at the only church in Cape Town that had a baby safe, and she was “intrigued” by the concept.

Kelsey started taking notes on the flight back from Cape Town to Atlanta on a Delta napkin, creating her own version of the baby box. She said most of those ideas are still part of the concept today.

Kelsey said she tours the country regularly to speak about Safe Haven, going into hundreds of schools to talk about abandoned children, the baby box program and safe-haven laws in different states.

Pennsylvania has “had a rash of abandonments” despite its safe-haven law enacted in 2002, Kelsey said. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, 55 newborns were processed through safe havens in the state and reported to DHS from 2003-2022.

Under Pennsylvania’s Newborn Protection Act, a parent can legally leave a newborn up to 28 days old at any Pennsylvania hospital, a police station, or with an emergency services provider. If the baby is unharmed and not a victim of a crime, the parent will not face any charges for leaving the child.

Kelsey said Pennsylvania still has work to do to make it easier to install baby boxes in places like fire stations, but having one at LGH should set an example for the rest of the state.

“It’s encouraging when a state says, ‘We want to be proactive,’” Kelsey said.

Ceremony

Steve McKinney, chaplain at LGH, offered a short blessing of the baby box at last week’s ceremony. He said the goal of the box is to assist new mothers “through and beyond their crisis” and to serve as a further blessing to future parents, the babies and potential adopted families.

“In this world, there are many obstacles that can get in the way of being able to care for and raise a child,” McKinney said. “May this safe haven box offer a safe solution to those struggling with the decision on how to best provide a viable, healthy future for their child.”

Marcy Mercer, case manager in the emergency department at LGH, said it was “pretty exciting” that the local hospital was receiving the first baby box in Pennsylvania. She said she hopes LGH will set in motion more boxes in the community and the state.

Mercer said abandonments are a “rare occurrence” at LGH. She said in her 12 years in Lancaster, one baby has been turned into the emergency department, but the city has experienced several high-profile cases of newborns found dead in places like dumpsters and toilets.

“This opportunity brings awareness to Pennsylvania’s Newborn Protection Act and the rights new parents have as a safe way to surrender their newborn,” Mercer said. “It also allows conversations to be had about safe haven by raising awareness of safe haven laws and providing resources for safe and legal surrenders.”

Future of the Organization

When Kelsey first started Safe Haven, she said she had no desire to spread the program to multiple states. She said an average of two dead newborns were found each year in Indiana, and her goal was to stop those from happening in her own state.

Kelsey said there hasn’t been a dead newborn found in Indiana since the program was launched in 2016, and a record seven babies were placed in the Safe Haven boxes in the Hoosier State in 2022.

“The more boxes that are coming out, the more awareness that is coming out and the more women are trusting us,” Kelsey said.

As far as expanding in Pennsylvania, Kelsey said her organization decided to start targeting hospitals for installations as the state Department of Health has sat on regulations for several years regarding baby boxes at local fire stations. She encouraged residents to contact state legislators to ask why Pennsylvania hasn’t moved forward with the fire station regulations.

She also said it is “absolutely critical” to get baby boxes into larger cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh where more abandonments typically occur.

“Start off with one box in Philadelphia and see how many lives are changed with that one box,” Kelsey said.

After last week’s ceremony in Lancaster, Kelsey was scheduled to fly to Florida to celebrate a baby surrendered in a Safe Haven box over the holidays.

“This baby wasn’t thrown in a dumpster, this baby wasn’t thrown in a trash can,” Kelsey said. “This baby was lovingly and legally surrendered by a parent that wanted something more.”