| | According to Vermont law, all places of worship, our churches included, are now Baby Safe Havens. A haven is a “safe” place where people can relinquish newborn babies – anonymously and legally. They can do this without fear of being arrested or criminally charged, as long as the babies have not been neglected or abused. To be covered by this law, a person (it does not have to be a parent) must hand the baby, up to 30 days old, to an employee or volunteer at a Safe Haven. The baby cannot be left alone! It is important for us to know that anyone at our Safe Haven can and should accept a baby at any time, knowing that we are immune from civil or criminal liability for actions taken to fulfill our duties under the law. This is a brief explanation of what needs to be done if we are handed a baby. Take the baby and briefly examine him/her to make sure that s/he is not in immediate danger. If the baby is in immediate danger, take the baby, and call 911 right away. Offer the person a Safe Haven brochure – which we will have on hand. Encourage the person to complete the information in that brochure about the child’s medical history, and leave it with us. It might be a help to the child in later years. We must fill out the bottom of one of these brochures with the date we received the baby and our Safe Haven location. (This is the information that the person leaving the child will need if they want to check on the child in later years.) Document any additional information about the child, birth parents or any/all other information the person is willing to provide. Call 911. Advise them you are a Safe Haven and have physical custody of an abandoned baby. Ask the dispatcher to send an ambulance to take the baby to the hospital and to have a police officer come and take legal custody of the baby. Provide all information collected to the officer. Keep a copy for our records. Immediately call your local Family Services District office to report what has happened. (Note: If the person returns while you still have the baby, and requests the return of the baby – do not give it back. Have them contact Family Services.)
We will have a poster with the guidelines, and brochures available in our churches for this use. If you have further questions, you can check with Rev. Jill or Joyce Sargent, as they both attended the training regarding this new law. | |
Middlebury United Methodist Church 
