Baby Boxes Proven to Work in Missouri, Expansion is Next

Updated 08/13/2025: This past weekend, a child was safely placed in the Safe Haven Baby Box at Mehlville Fire Protection District Station 2. This is the second time a child has been placed in the state’s first Baby Box, and the second time a Baby Box in Missouri has been utilized. The child received immediate care and is doing well.

      Missouri House legislation aimed at saving the lives of babies has been fully implemented, it has worked, and now the House has acted to expand it to reach more communities across the state.

For mothers in need of help, the Safe Haven Crisis Line is (866) 99BABY1, or visit shbb.org

Missouri’s first Baby Box was installed at a fire station in Mehlville in August of 2023. Six months later it was used for the first time. (Photo: Matt Markivee, Missouri House Communications)

      In 2021, the legislature passed, and the governor signed, a bill allowing for the installation of Safe Haven Baby Boxes— secure, climate-controlled incubators where newborns can be safely and anonymously surrendered without legal consequences for parents. The boxes offer a compassionate option for mothers in crisis who are unable to care for their newborns.

      The first such box was installed at Mehlville in August of 2023. Just six months later, it was used for the first time: a newborn girl, believed to be only hours old, was placed in the box. She was quickly cared for, adopted, and is now healthy and safe. Then, on the afternoon of August 10, a child was again placed in that box. This was the second time a Baby Box in Missouri has been used. That child received immediate care and is doing well.

      “We’ve had to use the Box already — and everything worked out perfectly. Everything worked the way it was supposed to. The legislation worked and the final product worked, and we’re just excited that through those efforts it’s going to expand it all across the state,” said Mehlville Fire Chief Brian Hendricks, who has become a figurehead for Baby Boxes in Missouri.

      The idea to bring the Boxes to Missouri was brought to Representative Jim Murphy (R-St. Louis) by a constituent who had read about their use in other states. Murphy sponsored the language that became part of House Bill 432 in 2021, allowing Boxes to be used in Missouri and for babies up to 45 days old to be surrendered anonymously.

      Murphy is proud to see that legislation become reality. In carrying it, he has consistently said that women in a crisis such as this should not be judged but praised.

      “A woman that goes through the process of deciding that [her] life is in such a situation that [she] can’t give this baby a future, she has made an incredible decision,” Murphy said. “She has made a decision that this baby is more important than her feelings, and we needed to make that as easy for her and as seamless for her, as anonymously as possible.”

      One of the Boxes’ biggest proponents in the House is Representative Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson), a member of the House Appropriations Committee who led the effort to secure that funding in the budget.

Representatives Raychel Proudie (center) and Jim Murphy (right) visited the state’s first baby box, at the Mehlville Fire Protection District Station 2, and participated in a regular test of the box was carried out under Fire Chief Brian Hendricks (left). (Photo: Matt Markivee, Missouri House Communications)

      So far, seven Safe Haven Baby Boxes have been installed in Missouri and more are on the way, including a second in Mehlville soon to come online. This year, the legislature set aside in the current state budget $250,000 for a cost-share program to help entities cover the cost of installation, enough to contribute to 25 more Boxes.

      She said while many people may not be able to understand how a person could make the decision to give up a baby in this way, it is a reality, and one that often plays out with tragic results. The use of Baby Boxes prevents many such tragedies.  

      “I think we all look forward to a time where we can stop hearing about babies being found in dumpsters, or in bathrooms, or in trash cans, or under trees, or buried. We are in the business of not only saving lives but improving the quality of life for the citizens of Missouri,” said Proudie. “A lot of people may not be able to fathom it but for individuals who do first responders’ work, they’ve seen some of everything that the average person has not experienced, have not seen, and will never see, and so when they tell us that they need some assistance in this way and it makes sense, we’re more than happy to oblige.”

      Hendricks said every part of the state should have one of these, because this kind of crisis could happen anywhere. As an official who has already gone through the process of having one installed, he offers his help to leaders in other communities.

      “Just let me give you the answers to the test. I’ve tripped, I’ve fallen, I got back up. I’ve dealt with the state. I’ve dealt with the legislature. I’ve dealt with it. You can just take all this information and copy it and do it at your place,” Hendricks said. “I think you’re going to see this program explode across the state of Missouri because of the actions of the legislature, of the legislators.”

For those who want to learn how to get a baby box in their area, Chief Hendricks invites them to contact him at the Mehlville Fire Protection District.

      Proudie and Murphy recently visited Mehlville Fire Protection District House 2, the site of the first Baby Box in Missouri and where the little girl was dropped off last year. They participated in a test of the box and got to see firsthand the response to its use. They saw responders at the fire station react and saw the various alerts and alarms that go out when the Box’s door is shut.

      The Station’s personnel are trained in all manners of neonatal care, so they can ensure the health of a baby in any situation.

“It’s a commitment, but it’s worth every minute,” Hendricks said.

The whole system is impressively and carefully designed to monitor the health and safety of the baby, protect the anonymity of the person who puts the baby in the box, and provide that person with information on how they can seek help, and who to contact if they change their mind and want to be involved in that baby’s life.

Created thanks to legislation that began in the Missouri House, the state’s first Baby Box has already saved one life. The sponsor of that legislation, Rep. Jim Murphy, hopes it is never used again, but is glad it is here if needed.

“Inside the box there is a packet of information and that’s just for the person that surrenders the baby. It gives them resources that they can use to address their medical care, to address counseling. All roads lead to taking care of a woman in crisis as well as the baby.”  Hendricks said.

      Murphy remains impressed by the system every time he sees it, and he says that thoroughness is necessary.

      “The last thing we want to do is have a baby surrendered and not have all of these things happen to ensure that that baby, from day one, is going to be cared for. As you saw through all the redundancy in this program, I don’t know how it could fail because there’s so many different fail-safes in this, and it works. It just simply works and we’ve proven it works,” Murphy said.

      Hendricks said the night that the Box was used remains one of his proudest moments in 13 years of being a Fire Chief. When he called Murphy to let him know what had happened, Murphy broke into tears.

      “It was an incredible moment in my life. It moved me forever,” Murphy said. “If I do nothing else worthwhile, and I’ve done a lot of things in the legislature, but this one I think is the most important because we actually saved a life.”

“I hope it’ll never get used again, but if it does it needs to be here.”

Previous stories:

House legislation enables safe place to surrender newborns in Missouri

VIDEO: ‘Baby Box,’ created by House efforts, used for first time to safely surrender a newborn

An End to State Seizure of Foster Children’s Benefits Headed to Governor’s Desk

      The Missouri legislature has voted to ensure that money intended for children in the state’s foster care system goes to those children and not the state, and in doing so the House has kept a promise it made in January.

Representative Melissa Schmidt (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Legislators first learned during the 2024 session that the state had for decades been intercepting benefits intended for foster children – things like railroad pensions and social security payments – and applying that money to the cost of providing their care.  In fiscal year 2024, that amounted to more than $10.6 million seized by the state. 

      House members were “shocked” to hear that children, particularly those who have already gone through a tragic life-altering event, who have lost their parents, were being “victimized,” as one lawmaker put it, by the state.   

      “That was the other thing that kind of sealed the deal for me:  hearing stories of kiddos that this actually affected,” said the sponsor of House Bill 737, Melissa Schmidt (R-Eldridge).  “Children that knew that there were pension dollars reserved for them and then expecting that when it was time for them to age out, and then coming to the realization that they wouldn’t have access to those dollars, and they were planning to use those for education, for transportation, for housing, all the things that we want them to be able to use those dollars for, and I would say the things that their parents who left the pension had hoped they could use those dollars for.”

      Representative Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson) said of the legislation, “These children, who’ve already been through something traumatic which brought them into our care, should not be subject to something unique and even more punishing.”

      Schmidt, who is in her first year in the House, took up the legislation after talking to the predecessor in her house seat, Hannah Kelly, who originated it.  Kelly, whose focus during her four terms was on children and what the state can do about the traumas they face, returned to the Capitol this week after learning that HB 737 had been sent to Governor Mike Kehoe (R). 

“Nobody likes to talk about the state-induced trauma, and I believe this bill embodies correcting a long-standing, state-induced trauma.”

      Kelly often mentions one little girl who approached her during the proposal’s first committee hearing last year.

      “She just looked up at me with big ol’ eyes and she said, ‘You filed that bill?’ and I said, ‘Yes, ma’am,’ and she said, ‘Well that bill’s going to help me.’  Those are few words, but her and I both knew what those words meant.  That was her way of telling me, ‘I lost my parents, I’m in foster care, and it’s going to help me.  The enormity of the grief attached to, ‘That bill’s going to help me,’ really touched my heart that day … I’d always kind of give a renewed push when I thought of that girl, and she was the first thing I thought of when I got the word that it had been truly agreed and finally passed.”

      Kelly had to leave the House due to term limits and when Schmidt won that district the two of them spoke, and Kelly asked her to take up this bill.  Schmidt said in spite of the fact that she and her husband have served as foster parents and have a long history with the system, she had never heard this was happening.

      “When we began to have this discussion I thought, ‘This is a no-brainer to me this needs to be adjusted and fixed,’ and I will say that the department has worked very well alongside me … they also saw that it was an area that needed to be fixed.”

      Schmidt said the legislation will end a practice she, as so many before her, called “shocking,” while ensuring the state Children’s Division will be able to continue to provide care.    

“We were able to work closely with our budget committee to ensure that the department was still able to care for foster kids.  That way it wasn’t a burden to them too, but I think the perspective that we came with was that actually was never our money, so it never should have been something we were using.  So, yes we had to get strategic but we found the dollars and our department will be able to continue to care for children the way they should and our foster kids will get the pension dollars that are earmarked for them,” Schmidt said.

      Proudie, who has been one among the most vocal about this issue since its introduction, said of the bill’s passage, “I’m glad it finally went through.  Finally, we can give foster kids what they’re entitled to and what they deserve.  We should not be charging children for existing and their own expenses.  When they become Missouri’s kids they become Missouri’s responsibility not their own responsibility.  We don’t treat any other children like that in the State of Missouri.”

Representative Raychel Proudie (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Proudie said she hopes that a next step will be to find a way to do something for those whose money has already been taken by the state. 

“I hope we provide some kind of remedy or reparations for them.  And, a lot of them who have gone through this have come back to testify, of course they’re not bitter about it.  They want this, they know that this is an issue, they live this issue, they don’t want it to happen to any other children,” Proudie said.  “I don’t know what that would look like because it’s been tens of thousands of children over time, and it would be something we would have to appropriate, but I’m certainly interested in a conversation.”

      The legislation had fallen short last year despite its broad, bipartisan support and outrage at the practice.  When this year’s session began in January, House Speaker Jon Patterson (R-Lee’s Summit) pledged that it would be passed this year.

      “When we all convened here January 8 we said that was our number one priority and I’m happy to see that it got done.  I think it got even better with some of the other provisions on there, and I think the governor will get that signed and I’m very happy that we were able to do that.”

      Among the “other provisions” added to HB 737 were language to nullify nondisclosure agreements in child sexual abuse cases, and to ban marriages for anyone younger than 18.

      The House’s last vote on HB 737 was 129-14.  It now awaits action by Governor Kehoe, who once his office formally receives it, will have 15 days to either sign it, veto it, or allow it to become law without his action. 

Previous stories:

House Renews Effort to End State Seizure of Foster Children’s Benefits 01-22-2025

House Acts to stop State Seizure of Benefits Intended for Foster Children 04-02-2024