Garda and hospital authorities have appealed for the mother of an abandoned newborn baby, who was found outside a church in Co Kildare on Saturday, to contact them.
The baby, believed to be aged between four and seven days, was found outside the Church of Our Lady's Nativity in Leixlip yesterday morning. She is now being cared for by staff at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.
Weighing just under nine pounds, baby April, as she has been called by staff, is in good health and had been well cared for before she was left at the church. She has been sleeping and feeding well.
April was found by the church sacristan just before 9 a.m. on Saturday.
She was dressed in a white Babygro and was wrapped in a blanket decorated with cartoon characters.
Ms Patricia Scales, nursing manager at Crumlin, appealed for any information about the identity of April and said the mother would be provided with every support and assistance.
"We're still hoping that the mother will come forward. Our priority at the moment is that she be reunited with her baby."
April is "very healthy and was very well looked after", said Ms Scales. "The nurses are mad about her. She's a dream baby."
April is the third baby to have been found abandoned in Ireland in the last six months.
Last October baby Sophia was found on the grounds of South Infirmary hospital in Cork on October 13th. The baby girl was discovered in a blue sports bag found lying on the boot of a car.
Gardaí in Cork issued a fresh appeal in January for the mother to come forward after previous efforts to identify her failed. Sophia is currently in the care of the Southern Health Board.
On February 28th a baby boy was found in Dublin city centre. A passer-by discovered the baby wrapped in tinfoil and placed in a bag at a bus stop on Lower Clanbrassil Street. He was less than 24 hours old.
The baby boy was taken to the Coombe hospital and gardaí have encouraged the mother to come forward.
Hopes were raised when a woman came forward three days after a public appeal and claimed to be the mother.
However, it emerged following blood tests that the woman was not the child's mother.
The baby is still in the care of the South Western Area Health Board.