Pregnancy comes as a surprise to many – but most people know when their baby is due. As the following tales show, however, a due date isn’t always accurate. Many women can go into labor just about any time – and in any place. From the library to a jail cell, keep clicking to see some of the most unusual places mothers-to-be have given birth…
On a commuter train
Rabita Sarkar, a 31-year-old woman from Harrison, N.J., said she started feeling contraction-like pains one day but didn’t think they were real because her baby wasn’t due yet. To be safe, she and her husband decided to travel into the city on Jan. 16, 2012, for a check-up. While on the PATH commuter train to New York, Sarkar’s pain got worse. Her husband checked and saw that the baby’s head was already on its way out.
With the encouragement of fellow riders – one little girl offered her jacket to keep the baby warm, the Associated Press reported – a baby boy was successfully delivered on the train. Officials turned the train into an express, bypassing stops to make it to the final destination in Manhattan as soon as possible. The Sarkars made it to the hospital with a healthy baby in their arms.
Through a train toilet
Pregnant women unsure of how close they are to giving birth sometimes unexpectedly go into labor while going to the bathroom. But what happens when the toilet is on a train? Bhuri Kalbi of Rajasthan, India, went into labor while relieving herself in a train bathroom in 2008 – and her baby slipped down the toilet bowl and onto the tracks. “My delivery was so sudden,” Kalbi, 33 at the time, told Reuters Health. “I did not even realize that my child had slipped from the hole in the toilet.”
Once Kalbi had realized what happened, officials stopped the train and the newborn girl was found lying uninjured on pebbles by the track. The baby, who was immediately brought to the hospital, was born two months prematurely.
On a shrimp boat
Talk about sea legs – when the cook on Captain Ed Kiesel’s shrimp boat went into labor, her baby came out feet first, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Delivered by the captain, the baby wasn’t breathing when it was born. Kiesel administered CPR, and moments later, the baby was crying. Keisel joked, “We set out with a crew of three, and we came back with a crew of four. We’re not getting too much new blood in the shrimp industry, so I guess we have to manufacture our own.”
In an elevator
Plenty of people worry about getting stuck in elevators, but what about going into labor in one? Katie Thacker of Spanaway, Wash., was one surprised mother-to-be when she got stuck in an elevator at the hospital right before she was to give birth. Baby Blake “couldn’t wait any longer,” the Seattle Times reported, and was born in the elevator weighing 7 pounds and 15 ounces. Thankfully Thacker had nurses in the elevator to help, and the baby was born with a healthy cry.
In a tunnel
“I started out delivering the Daily News and ended up delivering a baby.” That’s what 60-year-old Bob Halberstadt of Blairstown, N.J., said after he found himself traveling through a tunnel and noticing a man out of his car, the NY Daily News reported. Halberstadt asked what the man was doing, who replied his wife was going into labor. Halberstadt, who also happened to be an EMT, immediately jumped into action and helped the woman deliver her child himself. The baby was born safely. “After the baby was born, I had to head out and finish my route,” Halberstadt said.
At a theme park
Most kids are eager to go to amusement parks – maybe even when they’re in the womb. In May 2009, Takia Mann was at Busch Garden’s Sesame Place Pennsylvania when she felt cramps and had to go to the bathroom – only to give birth to a baby girl, Jayda. “It happened so fast. I didn’t have pain, just shock,” said Mann, ABC News reported. According to Sesame Place, she was the second mother to have given birth at the park.
In an MRI
Doctors at Charite Hospital in Berlin, Germany, created an “open” MRI scanner that allows a pregnant woman to fit fully into the machine to give birth, The Local newspaper reported. Why? Researchers hope the machine will allow them to study in greater detail how the baby moves through the birth canal and help them understand why many women end up needing caesarian sections.
In an airport bathroom
Flying on a plane could be an uncomfortable endeavor for many pregnant women. Giving birth in an airport bathroom is arguably worse. A woman gave birth at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport shortly after her flight landed, CBS News reported. A police officer assisted in the delivery, and both mom and baby were taken to Baltimore Washington Medical Center.
On a field trip
Nobody knew that one 12-year-old girl from Groningen, Norway was pregnant, including her family, classmates – and the girl herself. But when the girl went on a class field trip one day, she began to experience violent stomach pains – which her teacher found suspicious, The Telegraph reported. After the teacher alerted emergency staff, an ambulance arrived and saw the girl was about to give birth – so they rushed her to a nearby building, where her baby was safely delivered.
In a jail cell
Pregnant inmate Eva Hightower told her nurse when she was experiencing contractions, Knoxville News reported. The nurse didn’t believe her. Hours later, Hightower gave birth alone in her jail cell, leading to a lawsuit against the jail employees. Hightower and her baby were hospitalized – their later condition was not updated.
At the library
A Denver public library received a surprise delivery one day when 18-year-old Dominique Trevino walked in and told a librarian she wasn’t feeling well. Moments later, Trevino’s water broke and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, just 13 minutes after she walked in, Denver’s local ABC 7 News reported. According to the library manager, employees responded well to the emergency, giving Trevino quick care and privacy.
In a taxi
A Brooklyn woman felt contractions one night in April 2011, so she called a cab to take her to the hospital. But Even Sweeney’s water broke in the cab, and two minutes later – with the aid of her partner and the driver who had a 911 operator on the phone – her son was born. “I was just thinking how do I keep this baby inside me. I actually thought, well, I should try to keep him inside, but you can’t actually do that,” Sweeney said.