When a Mother Chooses to Give Away a Newborn

The baby now named Tessa Leavitt was born in a motel bathtub on the
night of June 18, 2005. Her mother cleaned her, breast-fed her and cut
the umbilical cord herself. The next day, the young Hispanic woman
swaddled the infant in a white towel and took her to Fire Station 15 in
Whittier, Calif., where she rang the doorbell and told the
firefighters, "I want to give up my baby." When the paramedics arrived
30 minutes later, she put the child on their gurney and left. "It was
eerie," recalls firefighter Kevin Cull. "The ambulance went off in one
direction, and she just crossed the street and walked off in the other
direction."