A woman went into labor last week on a public bus in Philadelphia, giving birth to a healthy baby boy.
Makira Williams was due to have her baby on July 21, but instead gave birth on June 26 on the Route 55 bus. It was about 9 a.m. when Williams suddenly went into labor, she told WPVI. When the bus driver realized what was happening, the vehicle pulled over. Williams said it took just two pushes to give birth to baby Mazir.
Williams recalled, “Somebody had scissors, trying to cut the umbilical cord and I am like ‘oh no.’ I know you are trying to cut the umbilical cord but no, you have to wait for the ambulance to stay on the safe side.”
Williams said several passengers helped her, but one woman in particular stood out. Unfortunately, she never got the woman’s name.
“I just want to keep saying ‘I thank you’ to the girl, I wish I would have gotten her name because I don’t want to keep calling her the girl. She was just so helpful. Now she knows how to deliver a baby whether she knows it or not,” Williams said.
Both mom and the baby are doing fine. Mazir weighed five pounds, 12 ounces.
“I have never heard of an occasion in the 27 years that I have been here that someone actually had a baby on board the bus,” said SEPTA driver Shwana Rogers. “No one is trained to deliver a baby. However we do train for emergency situations.”
Williams’ miracle birth arrives just two months after a Utah woman went into labor while flying on Delta Airlines from from Salt Lake City to Hawaii. Lavinia Mounga unexpectedly gave birth to a baby boy mid-flight, despite not realizing she was pregnant. By sheer luck, a doctor and team of neonatal nurses were also on the flight and helped deliver the premature baby. Mounga named the boy Raymond; he was born at just 29 weeks.
