Police pointed to legal infant-surrender options after Stephanie Ubaldo was charged in a case that has since advanced to a not-guilty plea.
PERRY, Iowa — Iowa authorities responding to the death of a newborn at a Perry daycare have repeatedly pointed to the state’s Safe Haven law, drawing attention to a system designed to let parents relinquish young infants safely as a 20-year-old employee faces murder and abuse-of-a-corpse charges.
The Safe Haven discussion followed the arrest of Stephanie Ubaldo, whose daughter was found dead Sept. 15 in a trash container at Acorns & Oaks Child Care. Perry Police Chief Jim Archer raised the law when announcing the arrest two days later, saying resources were available to people facing crisis pregnancies. The reference did not change the criminal allegations against Ubaldo. Instead, it placed the case alongside a state program intended to give parents a lawful way to transfer custody of a living infant when they cannot or do not intend to provide care.
Iowa Health and Human Services says the Newborn Safe Haven Act covers infants up to 90 days old. A parent, or another person acting with the parent’s authorization, can relinquish custody at qualifying hospitals and health care facilities, staffed fire stations, approved newborn safety devices or adoption service providers. A parent can also call 911 and relinquish an infant to the first responder who answers the call. The law provides protection from prosecution for abandonment when its requirements are satisfied. Iowa enacted the Safe Haven law in 2002 and has revised its procedures over time.
That legal framework matters to the public discussion of the Perry case, but the charges against Ubaldo involve allegations beyond abandonment. Prosecutors accuse her of intentionally injuring the newborn after giving birth and later concealing the body. More recent court reporting says she faces first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse and has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her plea means those allegations are contested. No judge or jury has found Ubaldo guilty, and the existence of Safe Haven options does not establish what she knew, intended or was capable of doing at the time of the birth.
The events that produced the charges began as a workplace medical emergency. Dallas County emergency medical personnel were sent to Acorns & Oaks on the afternoon of Sept. 15 after a report of a woman experiencing significant vaginal bleeding. Ubaldo, an employee at the center, was evaluated and taken to a hospital in the Des Moines area. Court records cited by local news organizations say she later told medical personnel that she had delivered a baby in a bathroom at the daycare and had put the child in the garbage.
Perry officers were then told that a premature infant might be in a trash container at the facility. Police said they received that information shortly after 6:20 p.m. and located the baby girl dead inside a trash bag about 10 minutes later. A death investigator responded, and the infant was transported to the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner in Ankeny. The department stressed that the infant was not an enrolled child at Acorns & Oaks and had not been under the daycare’s care.
The investigation soon moved from the discovery itself to what authorities say happened before the infant was placed in the trash container. According to the criminal complaint reported by Iowa news organizations, Ubaldo said she had known about her pregnancy for several months without telling others. Investigators allege she gave birth in the bathroom and heard the infant crying. The complaint says she deliberately caused injuries to the baby’s face in an effort to stop the crying. Authorities further allege she intended to resume working but was prevented from doing so by continued bleeding.
Medical findings added to the evidence cited in early accounts of the prosecution. The infant was estimated to have been between 32 and 36 weeks’ gestation, according to reporting based on court records. The medical examiner noted multiple injuries, and the manner of death was classified as homicide. The complete autopsy report has not been presented in the public sources reviewed for this story. A medical examiner’s classification does not determine whether a particular defendant is criminally responsible; that question is addressed through the criminal justice process.
Ubaldo was arrested Sept. 17, with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation assisting Perry police. The first public announcement listed a first-degree murder charge. The case later expanded to include abuse of a corpse, according to reporting on her court proceedings. Iowa law defines that offense to include certain acts intended to conceal a crime, including hiding a human corpse. Ubaldo has pleaded not guilty to the pending charges. Court reporting also says she waived her right to a speedy trial, and no trial date had been announced by early November.
Archer’s Safe Haven comments therefore sit at the intersection of two separate issues: the prosecution of one defendant and the broader availability of infant-surrender procedures. State guidance does not require a parent to use a particular phrase to invoke Safe Haven procedures. The program is structured around transferring physical custody of an infant to an authorized person or location so that medical and child-welfare processes can begin. State officials then arrange care for qualifying surrendered infants while legal steps toward placement and adoption move forward.
The distinction is important because the Safe Haven law should not be read as an explanation for Ubaldo’s alleged conduct or as evidence of her state of mind. Public records reviewed for this story do not establish why she kept the pregnancy private, what personal circumstances surrounded the delivery or whether she considered any surrender option. Authorities have alleged specific actions after the birth, but they have not publicly supplied a complete account of her circumstances. Unsupported assumptions about motive would go beyond the evidence currently available.
For the daycare and its parent organization, authorities also sought to limit misunderstanding about who was involved. Acorns & Oaks operates on a Perry Lutheran Homes campus, but police said the infant was neither a client nor a child in the center’s care. Perry Lutheran Homes said after the discovery that enrolled children and campus residents were not involved and that their care had not been affected. Police initially said investigators did not believe the episode posed a continuing threat to the community.
The case is now proceeding on a timetable controlled by the court rather than the initial police investigation. Reporting on Ubaldo’s plea says a pretrial conference is scheduled for Dec. 4 at the Dallas County Courthouse. Dallas County’s inmate system continued to list her in custody in early November. Prosecutors will be required to prove the criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt if the case goes to trial, while Ubaldo’s not-guilty plea preserves her right to contest the state’s evidence and allegations.
Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.