Train passengers help mum give birth before cutting umbilical cord with pocket knife

Thousands of babies are born each day worldwide, but this newborn’s family is likely to remember their baby girl’s birth for the rest of their lives.

Subway passengers had a memorable journey on Wednesday when a 25-year-old woman gave birth to a baby girl in central Manhattan.

The moment was caught on camera by Bryanna Brown, showing the moment the mum was lying on her side on the floor of the train while other subway passengers helped to deliver the baby.

The baby girl, who has yet to be named, took her first breath and was wrapped in a red blanket, as the passengers worriedly chatted amongst each other.

Brown told Storyful that she was on her way to work when she came across the incident on the subway.

The woman began to have contractions on the train and fell to the floor, prompting three other women to jump into action on the southbound W Train at the 34th Street-Herald Square station.

Passenger Riley Allen helped to cut the baby’s umbilical cord with their pocket knife while the train was still moving.

The train was held at the station after the incident as emergency services responded, according to the train controller heard in the video.

The woman and her new child were taken to hospital and are in excellent condition, according to NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow.

Mr Crichlow said: ‘This is another example of New Yorkers coming together to help each other, assisted by caring transit workers and other responders, reflecting the best of the subway community and this city.

‘We are thrilled that both mother and Baby W are doing well, and look forward to welcoming both of them back aboard for a lifetime of reliable — and hopefully less dramatic — rides.’

In 2019, the Metropolitan Line was brought to a standstill because a baby was born at Baker Street Station.

In London, there have only been four recorded incidents of ‘tube babies’ in the underground’s long history after it opened on January 10, 1863.

Before that, in 2009, the first ever boy was born on the tube when 32-year-old Michelle Jenkins, of Barking, went into labour while travelling on the Jubilee Line.

Staff at London Bridge Station called an ambulance but Ms Jenkins gave birth in the staff room before it arrived.

And in December 2008, Julia Kowalska became the second person to give birth on the underground when baby Jennifer arrived.

The first tube baby was born in 1924, when Marie Cordery, according to the Uxbridge & West Drayton Gazette, had a bit of a rollercoaster entry into the world.

Her mother Daisy Britannia Kate Hammond of Wealdstone was on her way to hospital on the Bakerloo line when she ‘became ill at Marylebone’.

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