Prattville fire station adds 'no shame' newborn drop-off box for babies

PRATTVILLE − It’s more than just a hole cut in the outside brick wall of Prattville’s newest fire station.

It’s the second Safe Haven Baby Box in Alabama, and city officials hope it will save lives, the youngest of lives. A group gathered for a combination blessing and ribbon-cutting for the box Thursday afternoon at Prattville Fire Station Number 4, on North Old Ridge Road.

“This is an option for a mother who finds herself in need,” said Mayor Bill Gillespie Jr. “I think they have found a great spot to come to the help of anyone in the community, or anyone traveling the I-65 corridor.”

The first box in the state opened the day before in Madison. The box is designed to allow people to drop off babies up to 45 days old, with the motto “No Shame. No Blame. No Name.”

It’s a lifesaving choice for “…mothers who are not ready to be mothers,” said Lee Marshall, founder and chief operating officer of Kids to Love Foundation, a group out of Madison that serves foster children in the state. The group is working to place the baby boxes in the state.

Eight other Alabama cities will have boxes in the future, including Gadsden, Tuscaloosa and Opelika.

For his part, Fire Chief Terry Brown said the box serves the fire department's mission.

"It gives that second chance," he said. "We are here to protect the community. To any other fire department that is approached by this organization, put it in.

"It won't cost anything, and it may save a life."

Fire stations near heavily traveled routes are the first choice for the box locations. The stations are staffed around the clock by medically trained personnel.

The box has an outside and inside door. Once the baby is placed in the box and the outside door is closed, it locks. A silent alarm notifies the people inside the station so the baby can be tended to quickly.

Alabama’s Safe Haven law allows for babies to be surrendered under certain conditions with no criminal charges being filed.

Monica Kelsey, of Woodburn, Indiana, started the effort to place the boxes across the nation in 2016 as a way to save the lives of abandoned babies. The effort has spread to 15 states. Since 2017 there have been 39 infants placed in the boxes nationwide, she said, and 133 infants “handed off” for fire personnel in a station.

She’s a retired firefighter and medic, and the mission is personal to her. Born in 1973 after a sexual assault, her mother abandoned her, she said. “I could wallow in it, or do something,” Kelsey said. “I decided to do something that allowed me to serve Jesus Christ.”

It was a training trip to Cape Town, South Africa, that gave her the idea.

“I saw a ‘baby safe’ in a church" where infants could be placed, she said. “I thought, why don’t we have that in America?”

Donations are used to pay for the placement of the boxes, and the effort is growing. There are currently 193 boxes active and 50 more coming online soon, she said.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Prattville fire station adds newborn drop-off box for babies