By Fallan Patterson

Staff Writer

St. Cloud police are investigating the death of a baby in St. Cloud after the teenage mother gave birth alone in her family's apartment.

A 17-year-old girl was airlifted to an Orlando hospital this morning after giving birth to the baby at the Neptune Bay Apartments off Commerce Center Drive in St. Cloud and texting a female friend for help.

“She couldn't stop the bleeding,” St. Cloud Police spokesman Chad Durham said, adding the girl was keeping the pregnancy a secret from her mother.

When law enforcement arrived to the apartment around 9:15 a.m., paramedics discovered the baby was dead.

“We're calling this a suspicious incident because we're not sure how the baby died. We're unsure at this time if the child was stillborn at birth or was full-term,” Durham said, adding he didn't know how far along the mother was in the pregnancy before she gave birth.

The Orange Osceola Medical Examiner's Office also is investigating and will determine the baby's cause of death and whether the child was a fetus or considered full-term.

A child is considered full-term once the mother is 37 weeks pregnant, according to the Mayo Clinic. A full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks.

The mother suffered non life-threatening injuries and is cooperating with the investigation, as is the baby's father and the girl's mother, Durham said.