The goal is to amend State statute 48.195, which explains the guidelines that are followed when taking a newborn into custody in Wisconsin. State statute 48.195 explains that in the state of Wisconsin a mother has three days to legally abandon the infant at a Safe haven location. The hope is to add to this statute to incorporated a baby box for cities within Wisconsin that populations are 50,000 or higher in safe haven locations. A baby box is built into a safe haven location that has an alarm system to notification on-call staff at the specific location that the box has been open and to go and retrieve the infant. In Wisconsin this is an important amendment because of the harsh winters that are experienced every year and the baby box temperature is monitored to keep the infant safe within the box until a staff member arrives to retrieve the infant. Indiana is the first state to implement a baby box and we hope that Wisconsin will follow in their footsteps.
