An unusual child custody case is brewing involving an Illinois prison inmate and the baby she secretly delivered and left under bushes outside her apartment complex in Wheaton, Illinois. The woman, a refugee from Myanmar, was sentenced to a three-year prison term for leaving the newborn, who had to be hospitalized for 12 days for ailments regarding his difficult birth. But an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigator testified that the mother told her she wanted the boy back--just hours after she abandoned him.

The boy was placed in foster care when he was released from the hospital. His court-appointed guardian requested earlier this year that the mother's parental rights be severed, based on her lack of care for the child at his birth. The mother testified that she had planned to go back and retrieve the boy, but was too tired and scared after what she had done. She was ultimately arrested by police before she could get the child.

The state investigator testified at the hearing in DuPage County, Illinois, that the woman wanted to care for the baby, but was unable to tell her how she planned to raise the child. She now wants to seek custody of the now two-year-old boy when she is released from prison. She is due to be released early next year, getting out about 18 months early from her three-year sentence. The 27-year-old woman accepted a plea deal in the aftermath of the abandonment, which led to the prison sentence.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times, "Woman who abandoned baby told investigator she wanted boy back," Dan Rozek, Dec. 15, 2011