MILWAUKEE — An arrest has been made in the death of a newborn, who was found in a field in Whitewater earlier this month. A 37-year-old woman has been charged with neglecting a child and hiding a corpse of a child.
RELATED STORY: Mother arrested; accused of leaving deceased newborn in Whitewater field
Advocates are working to educate parents who may be in crisis on ways to keep newborns safe.
Tricia Burkett is the coordinator for Safe Place for Newborns, a statewide organization run by Ascension Wisconsin, that works to provide education and awareness about Wisconsin's Safe Haven Law.
“Our role is to make sure that everybody knows about this - so that if they're in a crisis pregnancy or unable to parent - that they know that there's a safe place for their baby,” said Burkett.
The law says that any parent can give up their newborn to a hospital or first responder within 72 hours of the child's birth anonymously and with no repercussions.
Burkett says since the law was passed in 2001, there have been over 300 babies saved.
From 2016 to 2021, 110 newborns were relinquished to the state.
In 2021, 22 were surrendered.
“If women are having a crisis pregnancy they don't have to deliver at home, they can come to a hospital, they can deliver there, they can still be anonymous in their surrender,” shared Burkett.
Under the law, any baby that is surrendered goes straight from the hospital to a pre-approved adoptive home.
I asked Burkett if there are still options for parents to surrender their newborn after the threshold without fear of legal actions or repercussions.
“I do like to tell people Illinois’s threshold is 30 days. So, if you're in southeastern Wisconsin, there's no rules against crossing state lines to utilize the extended time frames in another state,” explained Burkett.
If that isn't an option, Safe Place for Newborns can still provide resources for a legal surrender.
She says the goal is to get the word out, that no matter what a parent is going through, they have options.
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