A premature baby was found abandoned in the snow recently with a message from the mother explaining how she did not have enough money to feed her baby.

The tiny infant was left in a cardboard box in Alaska, US, when temperatures had plunged to single digits with a wind chill of below 12 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Alaska State Troopers were called at around 2pm on December 31, reports the New York Post.

According to the note, the baby was born 12 weeks premature just hours before being abandoned on the side of the road. Fairbanks resident Roxy Lane discovered the tot who appeared in a video on social media wrapped up in a blanket and cooing softly.

Next to the baby was a note from a desperate mother which read “please help me. I was born today on December 31, 2021, 6 a.m. I was born 12 weeks premature. My mum was 28 weeks when she had me.

“My parents and grandparents don’t have food or money to raise me. They never wanted to do this to me.

“My mum is so sad to do this. Please take me and find me a loving family.

It concluded; “My parents are begging whoever finds me. My name is Teshawn.”

State troopers said the baby was taken to a nearby hospital and found to be “in good health.”

In a social media post, Ms Lane told how she found the baby by her home near a row of mailboxes and pleaded for anyone who knew the mum to reach out.

“Today I saved a baby and I’ll probably think about Teshawn for the rest of my life,” she said.

She added: “I’ve been processing my feelings all day and running through all the different scenarios and reasons, with my bf and family, as to why something like this could have happened.

“Clearly, someone in our community felt so lost and hopeless that they made probably the hardest choice of their lives to leave that innocent life on the side of the road with nothing but some blankets and a name.

“But she named him. There’s some love there, even if she made a terrible decision.”

Alaska is one of the last states in the US to adopt safe haven laws which means parents may not be prosecuted for the safe surrender of their children. The state enacted the law in 2008 in an attempt to reduce the number of abandoned babies.

Ms Lane speculated that the mother might not have been aware of the law which allows parents to give up their children at a police station, fire station, church or hospital.

Thank God the baby was found on time by a Samaritan. The real mother maybe somewhere praying silently for the child to get to the right hands.