Fort Bend Sheriff’s Office Deputies are searching for the mother of a baby girl who was left on a doorstep this morning about two hours after she was born. The baby, wearing nothing and laying on a white towel, was taken by ambulance to Southwest Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she is being treated for hypothermia.
Deputies are searching for the mother of this baby girl, who was abandoned on the doorstep of an apartment outside Stafford around 4:30 a.m.
She is expected to make a full recovery, but Chief Deputy Craig Brady said if no one had been home when the baby was abandoned, she likely would have not survived.
The newborn was left on the doorstep of an apartment at the Preserve at Colony Lakes in the 1000 block of Farrah Lane, just outside of Stafford. Residents of the apartment heard a knock around 4:30 a.m. When they opened the door, they saw the baby girl on a towel.
Brady said they believe the baby was born outside of a medical facility, possibly in a residence or in a car. The baby, an African-American, is a healthy birth weight of 7 lbs., and her umbilical cord was cut in a jagged manner, possibly with a knife or a pair of scissors.
He said it is likely the baby was left at that apartment because it is the first apartment visitors see when entering the complex.
Deputies spent the morning interviewing property managers at the complex as well as surrounding apartment complexes, but so far no one knows of a woman who looked like she was near the end of a pregnancy.
Brady suspects the mother lives within a few mile radius of the apartment complex.
He said it is likely the mother is young, and panicked. The baby’s head had “significant molding,” meaning it was likely a difficult birth, and the first time the mother had a child.
“I think they were just overwhelmed,” said Brady. “With young people, maybe their parents didn’t even know they were pregnant. I could speculate all day about what they were thinking, but it wasn’t a good choice.”
Deputies searched a dumpster outside the apartment complex, but found nothing of interest. He said the mother showed at least a degree of caring about the child by attempting to get her help.
“They were concerned to some degree,” said Brady. “It’s unfortunate but sometimes they do just throw them in the dumpster, at least this one tried to do something for the child.”
Brady said leaving the baby is classified as felony endangerment, but the main focus is not so much finding the mother to press charges, but to make sure she is recovering from the birth and to find out family history information that could be helpful to adoptive or foster parents.
Anyone who knows of someone who recently gave birth to a baby but doesn’t know where the baby is or any employee of a medical facility that had a woman come in who recently gave birth but does not have the baby should call the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office at 281-341-4665.
“There are many places you can take a child if you can’t deal with it,” said Brady. “But to just leave it abandoned on a doorstep and hope someone finds it in time to save its life?”
