This does not sound like a very good idea, IMO. I'm sure this woman will not surface anyway, but if she did, she could have become almost anything in all these years. I think young Katheryn should leave well enough alone. These stories so often don't have happy endings, and that's when the birth mother didn't abandon her child in a fast food bathroom. It's just too much for a mother who has given up or in this case abandoned a child. I feel bad for Katheryn because she really wants to know where she came from, but I really think she is just going to have to live her life with the mystery.

and their lives are all the richer for it. Since then, I have heard so many wonderful stories.

I don't think anyone should judge this decision. Let her go the path she needs to go and find what she finds.

Or did she put him up for adoption the regular way? My thought is that this woman has no intention of answering the tough questions about why she did this, leaving her newborn in a fast food bathroom. I've heard wonderful stories and I've heard real horror stories. The risks are very high, emotions run deep and painful and many people have no interest in digging that stuff up. My take is she will not find her, or if she does it will be because someone outs her and not because she is coming forward voluntarily.

but I'm not optimistic. The birth mother was likely young and shamed into hiding her pregnancy and shamed into leaving her daughter in a rest room where she would be found quickly. The shame that was heaped on pregnant girls 30 years ago was much greater than the shame they have to bear now, which is still enormous. Shame is toxic and it can kill.

And continued shame will probably prevent her birth mother from coming forward.

I hope she finds Mom.

Considering that, and the very real possibility that her birth mother had concealed her pregnancy (which seems to be common in abandoned baby cases, when the mothers are found at all,) this campaign strikes me as being rather problematic.

This is far to subtle to be a meme.

I know someone who dated him

You went to the digital underground.

We don't know the circumstances. We could just as well say "saved from abuse," or "surrendered to better care" or "left where someone will quickly find and care for my baby because I can't." The mother may have been very young and scared. The baby was wrapped in a sweater. That shows some care. Was she put in the trash can?? Half-flushed down the toilet??

She could have been in any sort of horrific circumstance that forced her to hide the pregnancy and leave the baby to be found while escaping discovery.

Could the birth mother still be arrested for leaving her 30 years later? I don't know the law on those things. At the very least if the birth mother revealed her identity she could very well be opening herself up to all sorts of cruelty from others, I can see people just piling on her with hatefulness because we see it so much in our society.

I hope the young woman seeking her out understands these things and realizes that what she wishes for may be impossible without much more suffering.

what lead her to leave that baby girl there.

Does the young woman have a right to know? Legally…NO.

Tikki

definition- having been deserted or cast off.

Being young or scared doesn't change the empirical fact someone ABANDONED a baby in a public restroom.

I also know it generally has a negative connotation, especially with regards to living things.

How unfair!!!

The baby was supposedly only hours old when it was found. Where was it delivered? In a car? In the BG restroom? In a field somewhere?

Who was it delivered by? Maybe the mother alone?

And who was she? How old? What were her circumstances? Was she abused? Was she scared? Was she a mere child herself? What would have happened to her and the baby had she shown up at home (assuming she had a home, of course)? What did she fear would happen if she took it to a hospital, to the police? Did she have the means to take it anywhere? Was she ill? Was she living on the streets?

What did she do with this baby? Did she put it in a dumpster? Leave it exposed in a field? Smother it? Bash its head in?

No, she wrapped it in a sweater. Maybe the sweater she was wearing. And put it in a spot where it was sure to be found. Wow, I think that's a pretty positive action compared to the dumpster/smothering alternatives. To me, that doesn't scream "unwanted" or "cast off." It bespeaks desperation and fear, and doing the best one can do.

It's only considered negative if you don't consider very much. THAT is the unfair bit.

Sure there are worse alternatives but in all seriousness, plenty of 15 year old girls do better and drop there kids of at police stations, fire stations, churches and hospitals. Dumpsters babies are an extreme outlier as are bathroom drop offs. Most women and girls do a shit ton better for the babies that they can not keeps including those whose choose to terminate early.

On the spectrum of shitty things to do to a newborn this woman or girl is streets ahead.

without being arrested.

New laws have changed that, but in those days she would have been in a lot of trouble if she had handed the child over to someone, as opposed to leaving it where it could be found.

its why they came up with the law in the first place. They were tired of babies on the front steps and would rather have them bring them inside.

Edit to add: I bet you all the tea in china more children were dropped off at police stations by a factor of 100 then in fast food joints that year. There is no way that this woman isn't an outlier far towards the shitty birth mother spectrum.

to be perfectly grown up at whatever age, to have everything work out for you nicely.

I guess not everyone has the imagination to put themselves in another's shoes and feel how desperate, exhausted, afraid, alone and in pain they may have been... hours after giving birth. You know... empathy?

Much easier to imagine they have every resource in the world and no fears. Then you can get all righteous on their ass. Well, maybe that WAS the case. But we don't know, do we??!!

All we know is the baby was put in a safe, warm place where she would be found quickly. That's more than a small step up from putting it in a dumpster, no matter what you say. What the hell difference would it make if she had run into a hospital, put baby down, and ran back out? NO DIFFERENCE other than she'd be caught and questioned and god knows what... arrested? beaten by parents/boyfriend/husband?

You think it would have been a "shit ton better" if she had "chosen to terminate early." I'm just speechless at this.

Dropping a new born in a bathroom is abhorrent and wrapping a sweater around it doesn't rise to the level of care required to be considered caring. Baby left in a bathroom a a fast food joint recently died before anyone found it because you can't just abandon a new born wrapped up in something warm in a fast food joint rest room and wish for the best. In many cases this is a death sentience for a new born. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/05/newborn-found-dead-in-pop_n_3021757.html

Maybe bring the baby home would have been worse but she had a multitude of better options then abandoning the baby in a fast food bathroom. There is nothing to criticize about a woman or girl who get in over her head and can't keep a baby, or choose to have an abortion. There is plenty to criticize about a woman who drops a new born off in a bathroom in a wrapped only in a cast off sweater, the litter girl is luck to be alive.

There is no argument that the woman in question in the huff post article committed a horrible act of neglect against her new born, guess what burger king mama did the same damn thing.

like leaving it OUTSIDE on the steps of a police station, like you suggested in another post? Somehow that is better than warm & safe indoors?

"guess what burger king mama did the same damn thing" ... yes, GUESS. Keep guessing. You don't know.

Enjoy your perfect world of better options.

while there are more then a few babes who died after being abandoned at a fast food joint.

I have nothing but score for someone who reads this story and thinks that the people who state factually that this baby was abandon need correction. She abandoned her baby could she have done worse sure, but most women do a lot better. She may not be a shitty person but she made a terrible shitty choice that day and she had plenty of choices.

I am not correcting the definition of the word abandoned or that the baby was abandoned.

I am pointing out that the word has a negative, accusatory, judgmental connotation. Someone else said the baby was "dumped."

For the last time, NO ONE KNOWS what choices she had or did not have. You cannot say she had plenty of choices. Maybe she did. Maybe she didn't. YOU DON'T KNOW. You don't know anything about her or what drove her to do what she did. YOU DON'T KNOW.

Nevertheless, the mother can be forgiven, as this daughter has shown us.

I can think of many, many circumstances that could drive a girl, or a woman, to do this.

It's not the best way to give your child up for adoption, but as long as people find the baby quickly and turn it over to authorities, it will fare just fine.

That's not to say there aren't reasons as to why a mother would be so irresponsible and do something so dangerous and stupid in terms of the child, but you can't blame anyone for using such words, when they were the one that happened to.

"you can't blame anyone for using such words, when they were the one that happened to"... I guess you're referring to the grownup girl using the word "abandoned" on her sign? I don't =blame= her, but it IS a judgmental, accusatory word. "You abandoned me" may not be the best message to encourage the birth mother to contact her, no matter how correct it is by definition.

And for the armchair moralists in this thread, you don't have enough info to pass judgment. Maybe the mother was doing the best she could.

All we know is that the baby was warm, safe, and was sure to be found quickly. I think that shows some care. I understand in a perfect world of unlimited choice, resources, and level of maturity, it's irresponsible. It's not what YOU would have done. But you ain't her, and you don't know know her.