East Cleveland fire station had a tiny visitor Wednesday afternoon when a woman surrendered her infant to firefighters.
The child was dropped off at Fire Station 2, 14301 Shaw Ave., around 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 24.
It's unclear why the mother surrendered her child.
The mother dropped the baby off under Ohio's Safe Haven Law but according to the police report, the child is listed as 10-months old. The Safe Haven Law only applies to parents of a child less than 30 days old.
According to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, the law allows the parent to surrender their infant to a hospital, fire or police station. The law protects the parents from any legal consequences as long the child has not been abused.
Infants that are surrendered will receive medical care and placed with county services to be put up for adoption, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Parents are not required to provide any information — including their name. However, anyone who does decide to use Safe Haven is urged to provide basic health information about the child. Forms are available for parents to fill out when they surrender the child.It's not clear how the woman was able to give her child up since the infant was older than 30 days.
According to the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services, the child has since been placed in the care of relatives of the mother.
Parents who have a newborn and want to keep the child but don't know how to care for it can call the Help Me Grow hotline at 1-800-755-4769 to get more information about how to raise and care for the infant.
More information about the Safe Haven for newborns can be found here.
