Mother tells of leaving newborn outside Federal Way church

The 22-year-old woman who left her newborn daughter wrapped in a beach towel at a Federal Way church a week ago Sunday told police she had endured three hours of labor alone in the yard outside her apartment shortly after midnight.

She said she wanted to get blankets to swaddle the baby, but she was locked out of her apartment.

The woman said she cut the umbilical cord with a pair of scissors, threw the placenta in a trash can and walked a third of a mile to the Steel Lake Presbyterian Church, where she left the newborn wrapped in a beach towel, according to a report provided by Federal Way police.

"It wasn't ideal leaving it at a church at night, but I really know that somebody can take way better care of her and give her a better life than I can," the woman told police when she was interviewed Sept. 29.

The Times is not naming the woman because she has not been charged with a crime.

The King County Prosecutor's Office is deliberating whether to charge the woman with felony abandonment. In Washington, it is legal to abandon a baby if the infant is given to someone at one of only two places: a fire station or hospital.

The woman told police she learned about safe-haven laws from a sign in a restaurant bathroom.

She later looked on the Internet for more information about how to give birth alone, and about the safe-haven law. She said she "could have sworn" she read churches were also considered safe havens.

The infant's father, Clark Stevens, is a National Guardsman about to be deployed for a 10-month tour in Iraq. He asked for custody after he was notified that he had a daughter. The baby, named Mariah Verle Stevens, will be cared for by Stevens' mother, who lives in Auburn.

The woman said she told Stevens, her ex-boyfriend, that she had carried out their decision to have an abortion.

"I kept kind of thinking I was going to do the abortion thing and went along, went along, and I never actually acted on it, and then it came too late," the woman told police, terming herself "an avoider."

She said she hid her pregnancy from everyone, including her parents, by wearing baggy sweaters and T-shirts.

"I am nowhere near responsible enough," she told police. "I cannot take care of a baby, and I can't deal with it. ... I knew that if I were to leave it at the church, it would be taken care of, you know, put into an adoption agency and getting her a family that really wanted it and give it a great life. Way better than I could ever do, ever."

She said she wanted to clean the baby and herself, get warmer blankets and write a note, but couldn't because she had locked herself out of her apartment. So she swaddled the baby in a beach towel she'd used to wipe the infant's face and left it in front of the church, knowing that people would arrive for Sunday services, she said.

When police told her the neighborhood surrounding the church was frequented by drug dealers, she said she didn't know the area was dangerous.

The baby was found at 7:50 a.m. by a church member, more than five hours after church surveillance video showed a woman leaving the child. The baby, nicknamed "Autumn Doe" by hospital workers, was in stable condition but hypothermic after spending hours in the 51-degree weather.

"I feel horrible," the woman told police when she turned herself in. "I mean, it's a bad situation. ... But again, I also feel that, I feel like I did what was best."

Noelene Clark: 206-464-2321

or nclark@seattletimes.com