If you are pregnant and can’t keep your baby after it is born or if you had a baby within the last 72 hours and can’t keep it, you have options.
A Secret Safe Place for Newborns offers a confidential option to Mothers. You are allowed to give up your unharmed newborn baby to a hospital employee at any Secret Safe Place for Newborns location without identifying yourself and with the knowledge that your newborn will receive good care and a good home.
A Secret Safe Place for Newborns promises:
- No identification of the mother
- No prosecution of the mother for abandonment
- The right to change your mind about giving up your newborn
- A health exam for your newborn
- Healthcare for your newborn
- A foster home and/or adoption for your newborn
A Secret Safe Place for Newborns: History
For 18 years, the nationwide Secret Safe Place for Newborns program has worked to help eliminate negligent choices made by mothers in crises.
The program, which originated in Mobile in November 1998, gives mothers a choice to leave newborns with medical staff – no questions asked and free of the threat of abandonment charges – within 72 hours of giving birth.
The very beginnings of the program started when former NBC 18 local news reporter Jodi Brooks began noticing numerous cases of abandonment and infant deaths in the city of Mobile. Babies were found in dumpsters, bathrooms, and woods, but the point that stood out the most was a mother who had drowned her baby in a toilet.
Disgusted with the high infant death rate, Brooks approached then-District Attorney John Tyson Jr. about a solution to end such acts of violence against newborn babies.
“It was about helping and protecting these women from a lifetime of guilt and prosecution,” Brooks said. “It was about saving babies.”
Brooks asked Tyson if there was a way mothers in a crisis could leave their newborn at a hospital or safe place and not be charged with abandonment, and the two worked together to formulate a plan that would let troubled mothers know there was an option.
Tyson guided Brooks through the step-by-step process and helped facilitate her saving newborns.
“It is important for mothers to know that they don’t have to go at it alone,” said Tyson. “Embrace the system. You and the baby are safe.”
The first newborn saved because of the program was a baby boy, born on Christmas Eve in 1998. The staff at Springhill Medical Center named him Nick after St. Nick.
Nick’s story made national headlines and was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show when she did a segment about The Secret Place for Newborns with Jodi Brooks as a guest.
Alabama lawmakers eventually passed the Jodi Brooks Law, and finally, every state in the country has adopted a similar law. In 2002, President Bush signed the national “Safe and Stable Families Act.” The law calls for federal funding to implement the program nationwide to spread awareness.
“When I see a sign that says, ‘This is a secret place for newborns,’ I automatically think of John and Jodi’s hard work,” said Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich. “If we save one child, then all of our efforts will be worth it.”
Dottie Hollingsworth, Springhill Medical Center Charge Nurse and founder of Angel Babies, an organization that creates bereavement memorabilia and clothing for premature babies, has seen the program work firsthand.
Local Safe Landing Locations:
Dr. Katherine A. Hensleigh
1 Independence Square
Butler, AL 36904
Grove Hill Memorial Hospital
295 South Jackson St
Grove Hill, AL 36451
Coffeeville Medical Clinic
21 Long Avenue
Coffeeville, AL 36524
Franklin Primary Health Center
140 Front St, Suite 4
Gilbertown, AL 36908
Jackson Medical Center
220 Hospital Drive
Jackson, AL 36545
Washington County Hospital
14600 St. Stephens Ave
Chatom, AL 36518
A Secret Safe Place for Newborns
501 (3) (c) non-profit corporation.
All donations are tax-deductible.
Donations can be mailed to:
A Secret Safe Place for Newborns
Post Office Box 850
Grove Hill, AL 36451