Police in rural Louisiana say a Walmart employee found a baby girl in a bathroom a few hours after the infant’s mother gave birth to her and dumped her in a trash can.

The infant was only about four hours old when an employee at a Walmart Supercentre in the city of New Roads in Pointe Coupee Parish found her just after 7pm on Friday, Lt. Shael Stringer of the New Roads Police Department said. The mother, a woman in her 30s, was found shortly after.

Stringer said a Walmart employee saw the woman in the bathroom at about 3pm that day and noticed that she was bleeding heavily. The woman told the employee that she was having some trouble with her menstrual cycle.

At that point, police said, the employee gave the woman some paper towels and waited outside the bathroom stall, not knowing that the woman was giving birth inside.

The woman wrapped the newborn girl, placed her in the trash can and left.

About four-and-a-half hours later, another employee who was emptying the trash can noticed that it was relatively heavy, Stringer said. The employee placed the trash bag on the floor and found the infant, who was discoloured and wasn’t breathing.

The baby was revived at the scene and was taken to a hospital less than a mile away, Stringer said. The infant, who is now in stable condition, was later taken to a hospital in Baton Rouge.

“Had it been just a little bit longer, the possibility of resuscitation probably wouldn’t have happened,” Stringer said.

Investigators found the woman, who had been taken to another hospital in a nearby town on Friday night because of complications from giving birth. Police expect to arrest the woman after she is discharged from the hospital, Stringer said.

She could be charged with attempted second-degree murder.

source : gulfnews