‘This is really happening': Witness on woman giving birth on subway train
It happened on a W train pulling into the 34th Street subway station in Manhattan around 11:30 a.m.. Fellow passengers yelled for the conductor to hold the train when the woman went into labor, according to witnesses.
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'She starts screaming like, 'I'm pregnant!'' Bryanna Brown, a straphanger, told PIX11 News. 'One of the ladies told the conductor, 'Don't move the train, don't move the train, a lady is giving birth at the moment,' so, at that point, I realized… 'This is really happening.''
Brown was on her way to work when the incident occurred.
'We heard a small cry, sounded like a newborn infant and then we saw two little arms kind of stick up and start flailing,' said Riley Allen, another passenger.
Allen said some of the women on the train assisted the new mother with post-delivery care. That included cutting the baby's umbilical cord as the paramedics were still en route.
'They're asking, 'Does anybody have scissors, does anyone on the train have scissors…' I said I have a pocket knife,' Allen told PIX11 News.
New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow applauded the team effort, saying, 'This is another example of New Yorkers coming together to help each other… reflecting the best of the subway community and this city. '
'We're hard and strong, but like when it comes to heartfelt situations like this, I feel like we do come together to help one another,' Brown said.
The new mother seemed humbled by the whirlwind experience, witnesses said.
'She just said, 'I'm O.K., don't worry about it, I don't need help,'' Allen said.
Both mother and child were taken to the hospital in good condition, according to Crichlow.
Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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