Abandoned Baby Is Named Liberty

A baby found abandoned at a construction site in Rockville, Md., on the Fourth of July has been named "Liberty," or Libby for short by nurses who have been treating her.

Two construction workers found the infant early Friday evening, wrapped in a shirt near some brush close to a dirt road on the construction site. The baby, covered with ticks, was dehydrated and had cuts on her upper body.

She has been listed in stable condition at Shady Grove Hospital in Rockville and will be hospitalized for up to two weeks, before being transferred to the Montgomery County Department of Social Services.

The baby girl was wrapped in a cloth, and her umbilical cord still was attached when she was found. Doctors said the infant had been born 12 to 24 hours earlier.

"At this point we don't know if the baby was delivered where she was found or if she was delivered at another location and then was dropped by the roadside under the bushes," said Lucille Baur, spokeswoman for Montgomery County police.

Baur said police are worried about the welfare of the baby's mother and are trying to locate her.

Police say several people have offered to adopt the baby if her parents do not turn up, even though adoptions go through social services officials.

The baby is expected to remain in the hospital for some time, receiving treatment for dehydration, tick bites and abrasions from being left in the brush, hospital officials said.

Last year Maryland enacted "safe haven legislation." The law protects parents of unwanted newborns from prosecution under certain circumstances. To avoid prosecution, Maryland's law requires the child be left within the first three days of life with "any responsible adult."

Police haven't said whether they've decided to charge the parents if they come forward because they're concerned that fear a possible jail stay would drive the parents underground.