If you've ever attended one of those fascinating but often largely useless childbirth classes, you have likely seen a terrified person raise their hand and ask about a common expectant-parent fear: the accidental mid-commute birth.
Or perhaps, like me, you were that terrified person. Perhaps you, too, were ready to pull an audible and change doctors and hospitals in your ninth month of pregnancy because it had suddenly occurred to you that the taxi trip from Brooklyn to midtown Manhattan could easily take an hour in traffic. And perhaps you also watched as the obnoxiously calm elderly nurse leading your class laughed jovially at your ignorance and insisted that labor takes an average of 14 hours for first-time moms so please sit down and chill. Well, I hate to say "I TOLD YOU SO, FOOL" to an elderly nurse, but: A 33-year-old woman gave birth to a baby girl in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge this week.
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How did the fear of so many pregnant women become this new mom's reality? The New York Daily News reports that the woman went into labor while riding in her husband's car. That's right — her labor began and ended on the commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan. So much for 14 hours.
The couple pulled over on the bridge and called 911.
"Then about 10 seconds later," explains a police source, "this baby girl is born. It happened fast but they called EMS and provide[d] comfort to the mom.” Luckily, the brave bridge trio made it to the hospital via ambulance shortly after, and are doing well.
The logical remaining question is: Which borough landed on the baby's birth certificate? Plus, the mom is from Queens, so this kid is pretty close to repping all five. Let's just hope her thrilling birth story is making the rounds in those LaMaze classes, just in case. Knowledge is power, preggos.
Welcome to Mothership: Parenting stories you actually want to read, whether you're thinking about or passing on kids, from egg-freezing to taking home baby and beyond. Because motherhood is a big if — not when — and it's time we talked about it that way.