Authorities have arrested a 20-year-old woman after a newborn baby was found in an airplane bathroom in Mauritius.
The baby boy was discovered in the lavatory bin of a plane traveling from the island of Madagascar to Mauritius, according to the BBC. The airplane landed New Year’s Day.
While the woman initially denied the baby was hers, she was made to undergo a medical exam to confirm she had just given birth to a child. Both the newborn and the mother, who is now under police surveillance, were transferred to a nearby hospital.
Both she and the baby are doing well, the outlet reported.
Customs offices at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport discovered the baby shortly after the airplane landed. The woman, whose name has not been disclosed, was in Mauritius for a two-year work program.
She will be questioned after her release from the hospital and charged with abandoning a newborn baby.
News of this infant’s abandonment comes the same time a newborn was left in a cardboard box in Fairbanks, Alaska, on New Year’s Eve, according to Anchorage Daily News. That child was discovered by Alaska State Troopers after they were notified around 2 p.m. Friday.
Roxy Lane, a resident of Fairbanks, first found the baby by a row of mailboxes near her house and took to social media to share the information. She posted a photo of a note left with the infant.
“Please help me!!!” read the note. “I was born today on December 31, 2021, 6 a.m. I was born 12 weeks premature. My mom was 28 weeks when she had me. My parents and grandparents don’t have food or money to raise me. They NEVER wanted to do this to me. My parents lived on Cormorant St. My mom is so sad to do this. Please take me and find me a LOVING FAMILY. My parents are begging whoever finds me. My name is Teshawn.”
After being discovered, the baby was taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. A spokeswoman for the medical center said the baby “is doing well and very healthy.”
In 2008, Alaskan lawmakers passed the Safe Surrender of Infants Act, granting parents of infants younger than 21 days the legal right to surrender their children to law enforcement officers, fire fighters, emergency medical service providers, and health care workers, like nurses and doctors.
Lane, the woman who discovered the baby, said it’s possible the infant’s mother did not know about the law.
“There is always a safer, humane choice to surrender a baby and you will not get in trouble or even have to answer any difficult questions,” Lane wrote. “Take the baby to a fire station, or church, or hospital and they will take care of them.”
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