Jessica and her birth mother back in 2005. Photo / A Current Affair / Channel 9
Jessica and her birth mother back in 2005. Photo / A Current Affair / Channel 9
Baby Jessica, who made national headlines after she was left at Liverpool Hospital when she was barely eight hours old, has found her birth mother in a twist the now 14-year-old girl calls a "miracle".
Jessica made a public appeal on A Current Affairback in April for her birth mumto come forward.
"It's not her fault — whether it was any external reasons, or any other reasons — it's not her fault," Jessica told the program at the time.
"I want to give her a big hug. I want her to know not to feel terrible or feel guilty in any way."
Jessica told her birth mother she was "doing really well now" but still wants the woman who left her at the hospital to be part of her life.
"It's very hard for 14 years. Every year pass… and I just want to go to someone and tell them the story," she said. "But I still can't do it. I want to meet my child."
Jessica said her birth mum coming forward was a "miracle". Photo / A Current Affair / Channel 9
Jessica's birth mum told the program it was her teenage daughter's mature words that encouraged her to speak up.
"I heard the word (sic) that she said — no matter who I am, she forgive me, she love me … and that's what made me stand up 'OK, you're my baby'," she said.
Jessica was less than eight hours old when she was caught on CCTV at a hospital in Sydney's west, wrapped in a towel in her mother's arms just after 1.30am back in 2005.
The mother had taken Jessica to Liverpool Hospital, in Sydney's southwest, for a check-up and given doctors a fake name, asking for a Thai interpreter.
For the next six hours, Jessica's birth mum sat in the waiting room holding her daughter, occasionally comforting the newborn girl when she cried.
Then, still wearing the pyjamas she turned up to Liverpool Hospital in, the woman left, caught on CCTV wandering out of the hospital with her arms behind her back and with Jessica still sitting in the waiting room.
Jessica's mother had only just moved to Australia when she discovered she was pregnant, she told A Current Affair.
At the age of 18 and without a husband, the mum said she was "scared" and didn't know what to do.
In January 2005, Jessica's mum went into labour while out shopping with her grandma.
She managed to make it home where, all alone in her bedroom, gave birth to Jessica without making a sound.
She sat in her room with Jessica for hours, terrified and needing medical help and realised her daughter also needed help.
"I just wait, wait, but she moving, she is still not crying," she said.
Jessica's mum at Liverpool Hospital. Photo / A Current Affair / Channel 9
Once her family went to sleep, she snuck outside with her newborn daughter and tried to get help at Hinchinbrook Police Station — but no one was there.
Instead, she waved down a car and asked to be taken to Liverpool Hospital.
For five months in 2005, police, medical professionals and the media launched numerous appeals to try and find Jessica's mother and encouraged her to come forward, but she never did.
