Covington County Hospital has taken a compassionate and important step to prevent newborn babies from being abandoned. They installed a Safe Haven Baby Box outside the Emergency Room, providing a safe and anonymous option for mothers in crisis who cannot care for their newborns.
The installation of the Safe Haven Baby Box is a result of Mississippi’s Safe Haven Law, which allows for the safe surrender of infants up to 45 days old. The law was passed last year under Mississippi House Bill 1318.
The dedication and blessing of the Safe Haven Baby Box will be held on Tuesday, May 7 at 4:00 p.m. and the public is invited to attend. The ceremony will take place at Covington County Hospital, where the Safe Haven Baby Box is installed on the exterior wall, just west of the ER entrance.
The Safe Haven Baby Box is equipped with an exterior door that automatically locks upon placement of a newborn inside and activates an alarm to notify the medical staff. The staff can then secure the surrendered newborn from an interior door from inside the building.
Lynn Scott, RN, CCH Chief Compliance and Patient Care Officer, expressed, “We are thrilled to offer this safe option to mothers in crisis. Our number one goal is to ensure the safety and well-being of the infant.”
The Safe Haven Baby Box installation has been made possible by generous donations from Covington County businesses and the Covington County Republican Women. We are extremely grateful for their support. For more information or to donate to the CCH Safe Haven Baby Box, please contact David Culpepper at 601-765.6711.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes is an organization that is dedicated to preventing the illegal abandonment of newborns by raising awareness and offering a 24-hour hotline for mothers in crisis. The organization’s main objective is to spread awareness of the Safe Haven Law. Women in crisis can call the national 24-hour hotline and can receive counseling and assistance free of charge. The hotline has received over 9,000 calls from every state in the United States, and Safe Haven Baby Boxes has referred over 500 women to crisis pregnancy centers, assisted in 9 adoption referrals, and has had over 140 legal Safe Haven surrenders. With their Baby Boxes, 43 babies have been surrendered, and three babies were surrendered directly to firefighters at Safe Haven Baby Box locations.
