Indiana's 'baby boxes' save abandoned newborns

On an April night in 1973, a teenage mother, scared and alone, handed her newborn girl to a nurse at an Ohio hospital and walked out the door.

Forty-three years later, the woman abandoned as a child is on a national crusade to spare moms and babies the shame, pain and danger that can follow a newborn being left on church steps, in trash bins or out in the elements to die.

Monica Kelsey, of Woodburn, Ind., founded the Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization to install depositories around her state ensuring the safety and care of newborns who otherwise stand no chance.

As soon as the box, typically built into the exterior wall of a firehouse or hospital, is opened and a baby placed inside, a 911 alert is sent. Inside the box, the baby is protected in a climate-controlled, padded and locked container until help arrives. Motions detectors trigger a second call to 911, and paramedics arrive within minutes to take the baby to a hospital. Mothers are given an option to press a button that would ensure a third emergency call.

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