5-Pound Girl Born in Restroom : Debutante Takes Maternity Leave From Dance

An 18-year-old attending a weekend debutante ball excused herself from the festivities and gave birth to a 5-pound girl in a hotel restroom, it was reported today.

District of Columbia officials quoted a police report on the incident as saying a housekeeper found the baby abandoned in a trash container shortly after the birth in a downtown hotel, the Washington Post said.

It quoted the city commissioner of social services, Audrey Rowe, as saying the mother will not be charged with neglect. “We anticipate the child will go home with the grandparents,” Rowe told the paper.

The debutante’s mother, who also was at the ball, became concerned when her daughter had not returned from the restroom after 25 minutes, the newspaper said. She found her daughter in a restroom stall, but the girl said she was fine and the mother returned to the festivities.

Minutes later, however, the mother went to check on her daughter but could not get in because police, who had been summoned after the housekeeper called for help, had the area blocked off. The woman found her daughter in an upstairs restroom and the two returned to the ball.

Sometime later, still at the hotel, the young woman told her mother that she had given birth.

One official said the girl’s mother had not known her daughter was pregnant.

The ball, which was attended by about 500 people, was a debutante cotillion sponsored by a chapter of Links Inc., a social and service organization of black professional women.