Police in Massachusetts are searching for the mother of a newborn abandoned on the front step of a Springfield couple who returned from a weekend away Sunday night to find him, wrapped in blankets in a car seat.

Investigators believe the baby boy was left there Friday night and remained as temperatures plunged below freezing Saturday night and hovered barely above during the day on Sunday.

“Being a mother, I don’t know how anybody could do that,” Juliannys Aviles, who found the child with her husband, told WBZ. “His face was so swollen, his feet were red and super swollen, his whole body was cracked, his hands were cracked, he needed the medical attention.”

Aviles warmed the baby while her husband ran for help from a next door neighbor, who said she’d seen the car seat but thought it was a delivery because the family has small children.

“I looked at the baby’s eyes all you could see was those swollen eyes from crying so much, it was so devastating it broke my heart in pieces,” the neighbor, Marilyn White, said.

Investigators said the boy was taken to Baystate Medical Center and is recovering from his ordeal.

“I hope mom gets help, we all know she needs the help,” Aviles said. “I hope she’s able to get the help.”

Aviles also said the family is willing to foster the infant when he’s well enough.

Massachusetts has a “Safe Haven” law that allows parents to legally surrender a newborn seven days or younger to a hospital, police station, or fire department without criminal consequences.

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[Featured image: WBZ screenshot]