ROANOKE, Va. – A new Safe Haven Baby Box is now open at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, marking the first of its kind in Virginia.
It offers a judgment-free, anonymous, and safe way to surrender an infant.
Installed in the hospital’s underground parking garage located at 1906 Belleview Avenue Southeast, the box provides a safe, temperature-controlled and ventilated medical bassinet. Once a newborn is placed inside, the door locks automatically and silent alarms alert staff.
Staff will immediately retrieve the infant and take it to the emergency department for medical assessments. Then, the Virginia Department of Social Services will take custody of the child.
Virginia’s Safe Haven Law allows parents to legally surrender a baby up to 30 days old without fear of prosecution, provided the child is unharmed and surrendered to authorized personnel or placed in an approved baby box.
“This is a wonderful thing, it’s an emotional thing and one can only imagine the effect it has on people,” said Dr. Andrew Herman, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. “We’re really proud to offer that for families that life has taken them that pathway that they didn’t expect.”
The project was more than a year in the making and was funded by The Carilion Foundation.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes now has 356 boxes installed across 23 states. So far, 60 infants have been safely surrendered in boxes, and more than 153 others have been surrendered by hand after parents called the organization’s 24/7 crisis hotline.
“Crisis can happen anywhere,” said Mariah Betz, the assistant project coordinator for Safe Haven Baby Boxes. “When we open up another box, we’re just offering up help to another parent that may need it."
The Safe Haven Baby Boxes hotline is available 24/7 for parents in crisis by calling: 1-866-99BABY1.