You want to slap this young mother upside the head and see if there is any brain inside. This is an AP story.

Girl finds teen sister's premature baby, abandoned but alive

BRECKENRIDGE (Texas)— A premature baby was found alive between a mattress and door several days after a teenage mother gave birth, hid the infant there and went on a trip, police said.
The teen's younger sister found the baby girl Saturday morning when she heard faint cries coming from a bedroom, opened the door and found a newborn completely wrapped in two towels between a mattress and bathroom door, Breckenridge Police Chief Larry Mahan said.

"Her sister heard whimpering and didn't know what it was, thought it was an animal and went in her sister's bedroom," Mahan said.

The girl immediately called authorities, who took the baby to a hospital in Fort Worth, about 100 miles east of Breckenridge, a town of about 6,000. The infant remained hospitalized, but her condition was unavailable Wednesday.

Lauren Renee McDonald, 19, of Breckenridge was charged with child abandonment and endangerment after she returned from her trip Sunday. She has since been released from jail on $10,000 bail.

Her attorney, David Wimberley, did not immediately return a call Wednesday afternoon from The Associated Press.

If convicted, she faces up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Investigators believe McDonald, who had hidden her pregnancy from her friends and family, gave birth one or two days before she left June 12 to visit a relative in West Virginia, Mahan said.

Texas has a "safe haven" law that allows a mother who does not want her baby to leave the child at a hospital, fire station or other designated place without being questioned or arrested.