Newborn ‘Found’ by Woman Was Her Own

A 21-year-old woman who claimed she found a newborn boy abandoned on her doorstep was arrested Saturday afternoon after police determined the distraught woman had given birth to the child herself at home before dialing 911 in an effort to get rid of him.

The healthy 8-pound baby’s umbilical cord was clipped, and he was “perfectly washed” and wrapped in a blanket when paramedics arrived at Valerie Bryant’s house in the 13600 block of Glendora Street about 9:10 p.m. Friday, Garden Grove Sgt. David Kivler said.

Hours before her arrest, Bryant told The Times in an interview Saturday that she had just put her 1-year-old daughter, Rebecca, to sleep about 8:55 p.m. Friday when she returned to the living room and heard what she thought to be a cat whining.

She said she opened the front door and found the infant wrapped in a cotton receiving blanket.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Bryant said, looking tired and dressed in loose clothing. “All these emotions hit me. I was scared.”

Bryant described the baby as cute and brown with a lot of hair. She said she brought him inside and cleaned him with baby wipes before putting one of her daughter’s diapers on him and wrapping him in one of her daughter’s blankets.

“I’m glad that I was here--but I feel bad because I don’t know why he was left here,” she said Saturday. “I feel bad for the mother, because maybe she felt she had no choice.

“She did the best she could to make sure the baby would be OK,” Bryant said. “If she hadn’t cut the umbilical cord, he could have died because he could have bled to death.”

Kivler said police returned to the Bryant house Saturday afternoon with a search warrant after receiving information from “neighbors and friends” that Bryant may have been pregnant.

In the home, officers found blood, bloody blankets and towels, and other body fluids that indicated someone had given birth in the bathroom of the home, he said. The baby was taken to a local hospital.

“We determined she’s the mother of the child,” Kivler said. “In speaking with her, she did admit that she was the mother. It appears that she was distraught and hiding the pregnancy from her parents. Just being overwhelmed by the circumstances of her life, she put the baby in on the porch and called 911.”

Kivler said Bryant was arrested on charges of felony child abandonment, but as in all cases, the district attorney’s office will review the case to determine whether to file charges.

Bryant lives at the home with her parents and her daughter. She was taken from the house and placed in a squad car without handcuffs about 3:45 p.m. Saturday as distraught neighbors looked on, one of them crying quietly as she clutched her own child.

“Whatever went on in there, there had to be a reason,” said one baffled neighbor, who declined to give her name.

Bryant’s daughter, Rebecca, was taken to Orangewood Children’s Home by an officer, who quietly buckled the child’s safety seat into the passenger side of his patrol car Saturday.

The 20-inch-long infant, named “Baby Johnny” by nurses at Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center, was healthy and drinking formula from a bottle Saturday, said hospital spokeswoman Cathy Padilla.

Kivler said the parents do not appear to have been aware of the pregnancy. For that reason, officers chose not to leave Rebecca with them. “With her keeping this entire thing from her parents, we don’t know what their relationship is at this point.”

Bryant had speculated earlier that the distraught mother who abandoned the child may have chosen her home because the baby car seat was sitting out front, in view from the street. She also said there was a party going on down the street and lots of street noise, and that none of the neighbors had reported seeing anyone drop off the baby.

“Once I wrapped him up he stopped crying,” she said early Saturday as her daughter played at her feet, near her Winnie the Pooh Halloween costume. “I guess I did what I was supposed to do. I don’t know why? Why? It just took me by surprise.”

Garden Grove Police Capt. Paul McInerny had initially said police believed the abandonment may have been related to an earlier call they received at 5:15 p.m. Friday that a woman was giving birth inside a white van at Brookhurst Street and Katella Avenue.

When officers arrived in the area, the van was gone, McInerny said.