ST. ALBANS, W.Va. — A safe and legal option for the anonymous surrender of newborns is now being provided in the City of St. Albans.
The Safe Haven Baby Box was recently dedicated at the St. Albans Fire Department Central Station.
A collaborative effort between the fire department, the City of St. Albans and the Safe Haven Baby Box organization, the project aims to prevent infant abandonment and ensure the immediate care of infants who’s mothers may not be able to provide the means to do so. 
“This is just another option or another tool in the tool box so to speak to provide an option or a way for mothers in the darkest hour or the hardest time of their life a means to turn their baby over to a safe and hopefully prosperous future,” Chief of the St. Albans Fire Department Lance Carney said.
Founder and current CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Monica Kelsey said the project is just an extension of the Safe Haven Law that has already existed in West Virginia for 20 years, which allows a parent to hand their infant over to another person.
She said this is essentially the same kind of concept.
“This allows that same thing to happen but to do it anonymously without fear, without judgement and without shame, because it’s important to some people to have that anonymity peace,” Kelsey said.
Carney explains how the actual process with the Baby Box will work.
“Basically the mother or the parent can turn the baby over, open the Safe Haven Baby Box and deposit the baby inside, and the parent at that time is free to leave,” he said.
Carney said within 60 seconds, the box will trigger an alarm to fire department personnel who will go and retrieve the baby.
He said they will administer any life-saving or medical treatment the baby may need and stabilize the baby before giving the child over to EMS who will transport it to the closest hospital where the baby will then go into the care of social services.
Kelsey said this is an initiative that is deeply personal to her as she was abandoned within two hours after her birth mother had her.
She said this program allows birth mothers a better option if they find themselves in a position where they can’t provide adequate care for their baby.
“Having this resource today is giving women who didn’t have it back then a chance today, you know, my birth mother didn’t have someone to walk along beside her back in 1973, she didn’t have a Safe Haven movement that is working with women to save the lives of these kids,” said Kelsey.
Chapman Technical Group of St. Albans helped significantly to get the project off the ground in the community through an $18,000 donation, which fully funded the installation of the Baby Box.
In addition, a fully automated alarm system was installed along with the box at no cost following a continued donation from Chapman Technical Group and Meeks Rentals/ Joot Security.
This Safe Haven Baby Box is the only box of its kind located within 130 miles and is the third to come to the state of West Virginia.
The box is staffed 24/7 by EMTs and supported by the 24-hour hotline, 1-866-99BABY1 for women to speak with trained professionals.