SEATTLE – King County prosecutors will not seek any jail time for the young woman who left her newborn baby outside a church in the middle of the night.

Surveillance video at Steel Lake Presbyterian Church in Federal Way shows a young woman leaving a newborn baby outside in the early morning hours of Sept. 28, 2008.

Sarah Christianson, 22, is charged with abandonment of a dependent person in the third degree. She is accused of leaving her daughter, who was born just hours earlier, at the doorstep of Steel Lake Presbyterian Church in Federal Way in the early morning hours on Sept. 28. The baby was wrapped in a beach towel and spent almost six hours outside before a church member discovered her.

Christianson turned herself in the next day.

The abandonment charge is a gross misdemeanor that usually carries a sentence of up to a year in jail. But prosecutors instead plan to ask that Christianson receive treatment and community supervision if convicted.

"I can appreciate that the decision to abandon the newborn was the product of confusion, fear and panic," King Co. Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said in a statement, "but it also put the child's life in great danger."

According to police reports, Christianson gave birth in a yard outside the apartments where she and her father live. She told Federal Way police that she cut the umbilical cord with scissors, threw the placenta in the trash and wrapped the baby in a beach towel.

"I mean, I didn't realize it was dangerous, the area and everything, and it wasn't ideal leaving it at a church at night, but I really know that somebody can take way better care of her and give her a better life than I can," the woman told police.

Under Washington law, a newborn can be left anonymously with qualified personnel within 72 hours of birth, such as at a hospital or fire station where immediate medical attention is available. In those cases, no charges will be filed.

The law does not allow someone to abandon a newborn at places where qualified personnel are not available to immediately care for the infant.

The baby is in good condition. Her father, Clark Stevens, was called home from training with his National Guard unit in Wisconsin.

Clark said he didn't know his ex-girlfriend was pregnant, and thought both had agreed on having an abortion. He told The News Tribune he would seek custody of his daughter.

He said the baby's name is Mariah Verle Stevens and that his parents will take care of her after he's deployed to Iraq.