Occasionally parents face difficult and desperate circumstances and find they are not ready or able to raise a newborn. These parents have the option under the Safely Surrendered Baby Law to legally and safely surrender their newborn baby within three days of their birth (72 hours) at various Ventura County locations without fear or arrest. Any Ventura County Fire Department fire station, Ventura County Medical Center and Santa Paula Hospital are designated as Safe Havens for surrendered babies.

The surrender process is simple and protects both the parent and the baby. When a baby is surrendered at a Safe Haven, a confidential, coded ankle bracelet will be placed on the infant. The surrendering parent will be given a medical questionnaire and a bracelet that matches the one given to the baby. The brief questionnaire is voluntary and designed to collect medical information critical to the health and survival of the baby, not its identity. The confidential bracelets allow a surrendering parent to reclaim the baby within 14 days.

It is important that any parent who wants to surrender their baby know they can do so anonymously, but the infant must be received at the Safe Haven by an actual individual on duty. Leaving a baby unattended is considered child abandonment and the Safely Surrendered Baby law will not apply, leaving the parent unprotected from the law.

The Safe Surrender process protects newborns from abandonment, giving them a second chance at life. Newborns can be safely surrendered throughout the county.

Safe surrender sites display the blue and white logo above.

DIAL 1.877.BABY.SAF (1-877-222-9723)
Questions: babysafevc@ventura.org

The toll-free telephone hotline number provides information and the locations of safe surrender sites.