Edited to add: If you landed here as a result of searching for “baby box” please know that these are my personal thoughts only, most of which indicate that I have more emotional work to do. There is help for you – no questions, no judgment. Please know that I pray peace for you.
(Fair warning: this is raw, harsh and ugly. True confession: I have these thoughts too often; but this time, I decided to write them down before I denied them.)
FULL STOP.
Baby Boxes. Boxes into which any human being may place another human being – in this case, an unwanted baby – and then leave and go on about the business of life. Because you know, a couple years ago they started recycling their plastic water bottles so they’re completely on board with not putting just anything into the trash.
Baby boxes. These are now necessary items. Or if not necessary, they have been found to be “helpful.” Because the laws that exist where one can drop a baby off at a hospital or fire station or police department with no questions asked just don’t allow the total anonymity needed when looking to forever ditch one’s own flesh and blood. I mean, the placenta was messy enough, but paperwork? I don’t think so.
I wonder if the boxes come in different sizes. You know, like diapers and clothing. Zero to three months, toddler, and extra, extra large for those particularly pesky teenage years.
A prototype of a baby box, where parents could surrender their newborns anonymously, is shown outside the fire station in Woodburn, Indiana, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015. The box is actually a newborn incubator, or baby box, and it could be showing up soon at Indiana hospitals, fire stations, churches and other selected sites under legislation that would give mothers in crisis a way to surrender their children safely and anonymously. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Yes. I know that if they save the life of one baby, they are worth it. Yes. I get that there are people whose fear, shame and/or mental and emotional state would prevent them from entering one of the safe surrender sites. So do I think they are a necessary evil (or an evil necessity)?
Sadly – to the degree where I could actually weep – Yes.
But in the name of all that is holy in this world, I have just one other question.
How do I get one installed on my front door?
Patricia Alderman 