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Newborn Baby Girl Found in Dumpster With Umbilical Cord Still Attached

A newborn baby girl found in a dumpster in Texas is doing well in an Austin hospital two days after passers by saved the infant’s life.

 KXAN News reports two people found the girl early Wednesday morning in a dumpster at the Mira Vista Apartment in Austin, Texas. Local police said if the infant had stayed in the dumpster much longer, she may not have survived.

Teresa Reese was one of the neighbors who found her. The local resident said she saw a man looking in the dumpster when she was getting her daughter ready for school, and decided to go over and ask what was wrong.

Reese said she was shocked to see a newborn baby with her umbilical cord still attached laying inside the dumpster; she said the man was on the phone with police.

“I just started crying hysterically,” Reese said. “It looked to me like she was crying but nothing was coming out, but I wanted to hear the words that she was alive so the minute they said she was alive, I just started praising God. My life will never be the same because of this experience… No child should ever have to go through that.”

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Austin Police Officer Destiny Winston said the baby was in critical condition when they arrived. On Friday, KVUE News reported the baby now is in fair condition at the hospital.

“Without the 911 call, the baby may not have been discovered in time,” Winston said.

On Friday, police said they found the baby’s mother. However, they did not provide more information about her, saying their investigation continues.

In August, two similar infant abandonment cases occurred in Houston, Texas and New York state.

In Houston, a local resident discovered a newborn girl covered in ants in the bushes after he heard her crying. Police said the man cleaned her off and held her until authorities arrived.

Police said they quickly found the mother, a 21-year-old living in the apartment complex, when they followed a trail of blood near the baby. The newborn appeared to be in good health. According to the local news, child welfare officials placed her with a foster family.

Several days earlier, sisters in Elmira, New York also found an abandoned baby in a garbage bag in their neighborhood. Police estimated that the 8-month-old girl had survived in the plastic bag for about three days before the sisters found her, Fox 59 News reports.

When authorities arrived, they took the baby to a local hospital for treatment. The Washington Post reports the baby later was transported to another hospital, but eventually she was well enough to be released into the care of a foster family.

Police found the baby’s mother and charged her with attempted second-degree murder.

All 50 states have safe haven laws to protect newborn babies from abandonment and infanticide. Save haven laws allow mothers in crisis to leave their newborns in a safe environment, such as a hospital or fire station, without questions or repercussions.

Between 2004 and 2011, about 50 infants in Texas were surrendered under its safe haven law, according to the Dallas Morning News. National statistics are not kept about the number of babies saved through safe haven laws.

If you or someone you know would like more information about relinquishing a newborn child, please call 1-866-99BABY1 or go to www.SafeHavenLaw.com.

Source: Life News