CARMEL, Ind. — A baby placed in a baby box at a Carmel fire station already has a new home.
The infant girl was left in the Safe Haven Baby Box at Carmel Fire Station #345 earlier this week. She was the fourth baby surrendered at the fire station in the past 16 months.
In all four cases, Carmel firefighters removed the baby from the box in less than a minute to begin caring for the child and starting the search for a new home.
"Once mom opens the baby box and places (the child inside) and shuts the door, the door locks. That prevents the mom from taking the baby back out," Carmel Fire Capt. John F. Moriarty said. "Once the baby is placed, the firefighter will take the baby from the bassinet and put it up here and begin to treat the baby."
"Thank you for trusting the Carmel Fire Department to take it from here," said Safe Haven Baby Boxes founder Monica Kelsey, speaking in reference to the baby's mother. "Your baby is safe, your baby is healthy and the parents for your child have already been chosen."
A new Indiana law streamlines the placement process for surrendered newborns, bypassing the Department of Child Services, custody and foster families.
"She has already met with her parents," Kelsey said.
The fire department has a list of adoption agencies to choose from to see the baby gets adopted. The agency vets and picks the parents.
In the case of the girl left in Carmel this week, the prospective adoptive parents picked up the baby girl within 12 hours.
"The whole thing is about the baby, right? The baby is not going through a whole lot of hands. The baby is just with us. The nurses, doctors take care of it, and then, right to the adoptive family, and they got the car seat, they go home, boom," Moriarty said.
The bonds that are created endure.
"Our families have come back and celebrated with the firefighters in this very room, and we are celebrating and connected with the baby and loved on the baby and the family, and so the whole circle of life here is wonderful," Moriarty said.
The baby box and its back-up alarm are tested weekly. Pictures of the firefighters' efforts are preserved and kept private, then placed in a baby book given to the child's new parents so there's a record to share with the child in the future.
The biological parents have several weeks to petition for the child if they change their mind.
There are 157 baby boxes in 11 states. Thirty-five newborns have been surrendered in the boxes since 2017, including 14 this year.