Albuquerque may be on its way to getting baby boxes — usually installed in fire departments under the promise of giving parents a way to anonymously surrender their baby.
City Councilors Renée Grout and Klarissa Peña want Albuquerque to become the next city to get Safe Haven Baby Boxes and plan to bring a resolution before the City Council in August. Grout, her policy analyst and a fire department official even went down to the nearest town where a baby has been surrendered to consult with city leaders.
Hobbs, Carlsbad, Española, Belen, Alamogordo, Roswell and Farmington have installed baby boxes and two have already been used. The non-profit Safe Haven Baby Boxes raises awareness and trains local officials on how to use the devices which offer a climate-controlled repository that alerts the fire department if it has been opened.
Even smaller towns have hopped on the baby box train.
Edgewood will soon have one after town officials approved funding for its installation earlier this year. The Town of Bernalillo has also considered installing a baby box.
In total, the boxes have been used three times in the state.
The first baby box to be installed was in Española in 2022 after a woman in Hobbs put her baby in a dumpster. The baby survived.
The first baby to be surrendered in a baby box was in Hobbs in September 2023; since then, a baby was surrendered in Belen in February and another in Hobbs in May.
To get a closer look, Grout and her senior policy analyst, Abigail Stiles, and one of the city’s deputy fire chiefs took a trip to Belen on Monday to meet with city officials who showed them their baby box and demonstrated how it is used.
Grout told City Desk ABQ she is grateful the mother who surrendered her baby in Belen had a safe place to take the baby — and that’s the reason she and Peña want to install a baby box in each of their districts.
“I would rather have a mom drop it off in a safe place where she doesn’t have to worry rather than putting it in a dumpster because she’s scared,” Grout said. “Councilor Peña and I are hoping to have [the resolution] introduced at our first council meeting, but we want the document to be ready, so I don’t want to rush it but this is a goal of ours to get this done.”
At the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Government Commission meeting June 27, Grout introduced the resolution and said while it is still in the planning stages, she wanted to bring it to them for discussion.
Grout said that the state has appropriated grant funding for each county in the state to install a baby box and Bernalillo County accepted the $10,000 grant but has yet to use it.
Stiles said the county and city will need to collaborate because the county “didn’t feel like their fire stations were placed strategically in areas that this would be appropriate for” and agreed that the city’s fire stations are in more appropriate areas.
Stiles explained the New Mexico Safe Haven for Infants Act “permits parents to surrender their unharmed newborns that are up to 90 days old anonymously without facing legal consequences,” but Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn raised concerns about whether it really is anonymous.
“The state law was very clear that you can surrender a baby anonymously but then it came to light that the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) was investigating every baby who was surrendered and trying to find the family, which does not sound anonymous to me,” Fiebelkorn said.
Stiles said Secretary of CYFD Teresa Casados was the one who informed her that the county accepted the grant from the state but she is not sure “where CYFD stands on this” and there is “definitely a conversation to have.”
“There is a quote from the secretary of CYFD explaining the agency is bound by law to investigate,” Councilor Nichole Rogers said. “They’re not doing investigations in any way to criminalize or prosecute anyone, their investigation really is just to make sure that any efforts to locate the mother or the parents are to make sure that she is safe.”
Belen’s baby box
Belen Fire Chief Charles Cox told City Desk ABQ that he thinks their baby box was worthwhile and with more of them throughout the state, he hopes there won’t be any more reports of babies being left in dumpsters.
“That baby is alive today, so that is a success for us,” Cox said. “It does great service for not only the city of Belen but the surrounding communities outside of Belen. You could go as far as Isleta or Albuquerque if there is a mother who is in distress who can’t take care of the baby or doesn’t want it, they can come down here and put it in our baby box and we will make sure her baby is well taken care of.”
Cox also said the fire department or hospital will contact CYFD after the baby box is used but it is not the fire department’s “responsibility to find out who the mother is, our concerns are for the baby.”
While there is confusion regarding the anonymity of baby boxes and CYFD’s involvement, Grout said she knows there are some questions and they are working through those.
“When we introduce something, things can change, more people get involved who have their ideas and we go from there,” Grout said.
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