Case of St. Paul infant heightens need for awareness
Minnesota’s
Safe Place for Newborns law allows mothers to safely and anonymously give up
newborns to safe places such as hospitals and urgent care facilities, or by
calling 9-1-1. Minnesota Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper called for
increased awareness of this option following the case of an infant left alone in
a church this week.
“This
law is not only for infants, but also for mothers,” Piper said. “Mothers who
may be very scared and unprepared to care for their newborns have safe
alternatives for giving them up. This is doubly important after a baby was
found yesterday at the Cathedral of St. Paul.”
The
law allows mothers, or others acting with mothers’ permission, to safely and
anonymously surrender unharmed infants born within the past seven days to a
designated safe place. A safe place includes a hospital, an urgent care
facility during its hours of operation, or an ambulance that is dispatched in
response to a 9-1-1 call.
Twenty-two
newborns were saved from 2013 through late December 2016 under the Safe Place
for Newborns law, which was amended in 2012 after tragedies involving abandoned
infants. That includes three infants in 2013, six in 2014, 10 in 2015 and three
from the beginning of 2016 through Dec. 20.
The
Minnesota Department of Human Services recently launched a campaign to ensure
that pregnant women know about the law in case they need it, and to provide
health care professionals with information about their responsibilities.
The
campaign, which touts “There’s a safe place to give up your newborn,” targets
two audiences:
- Pregnant women, about
their option to safely give up their newborn at any Minnesota hospital or
urgent care clinic; or call 9-1-1.
- Ambulance, urgent
care and hospital staff, about their responsibilities to calmly accept newborns,
avoid asking the identity of mothers, and inform the responsible county social
service agencies to place the newborns in foster care or follow the provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act, if it applies.
The Safe Place for Newborns campaign includes social
media, websites, posters, signs, brochures, newsletters, window clings, lobby
displays and Q and A documents.
More information is
available on the department’s fact sheet or
the Safe
Place for Newborns website at https://safeplacemn.org/.
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