According to the Chicago Tribune, a second newborn in five months was found in an Indiana fire station’s baby box. Under Indiana’s Safe Haven Law, newborns can be left at hospitals, fire stations, or police stations without the birth parent being prosecuted. Indiana Department of Child Services takes the baby into custody through Child Protective Services and the baby is placed with a caregiver.

A baby box protects the identity of birth mothers and avoids prosecution. However, the main concern is, should these boxes only be the last resort for birth mothers to place their newborns? Birth mothers can have essentially the same anonymity while placing their child for adoption through more conventional methods.

If you place the baby in a fire station, instead of directly with a couple, the baby will go into the public foster care/adoption system, which means they may switch homes before they are permanently placed with a family. It’s much better for an infant to start with a loving, permanent family as being switched around isn’t good for attachment and could lead to trauma for the baby. You can still maintain anonymity if that is what you choose, but know the child is directly being placed with a loving family if you place through an adoption program.

It can also help the baby later in life if you go through proper adoption channels, as opposed to a baby box. Again, you can keep the same anonymity and if you don’t want to know what family the baby will go to, that is fine, but it may be important later in life that the baby has some family medical history. Later in life when doctors ask about a family history of heart disease, cancer, or other medical issues, the adoptee has that information (even if they don’t have their birth parents’ names) and they can be informed about family medical history and their own risk for illness.

At Adoption Planners, we help birth mothers through adoption process to ensure their child is put into the care of a loving, pre-screened adoptive family. We do everything in our power to ensure the birth mother maintains her privacy and is taken through the process in a stress-free manner, in whichever way she chooses.

Check out the full news article here.