‘Smooth, Successful Delivery’ for Woman Who Gave Birth in Calif. Barnes & Noble
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — A mother of seven and her newborn son are “doing great” after she unexpectedly gave birth in the lobby of a Torrance, Calif., Barnes & Noble store, a paramedic told ABC News.
The woman, who was eight months pregnant, started to experience abdominal pain while she was at the book store around 7:30 p.m. Friday, Torrance Fire Department firefighter-paramedic Chad DeMarco said.
Shoppers in the store at the time told ABC News’ Los Angeles affiliate KABC-TV that the dramatic delivery caught everyone by surprise.
“A lady was in the corner, sitting on the bench and she just started kind of screaming,” Delia Ramsey said. “Then there was another woman started rubbing her back pretty hard. She was leaning over and just started screaming, ‘Get it out!'”
By the time Torrance fire officials rushed to the scene, the mother had already started crowning, DeMarco said.
DeMarco said authorities controlled the crowds to give the woman space. Then paramedics draped cloth over the woman to give her privacy before safely delivering the baby boy at the front of the store.
“Usually we prefer to deliver in the hospital, but the baby was coming out,” DeMarco said. “We cut the cord in the Barnes & Noble.”
“When we heard the last scream, the big scream, everybody came running and then just as I got on the other side of the bookshelf by the door, I saw a little baby,” Dave Delgado, another shopper in the store, told KABC-TV.
“Soon as they got her on the gurney, the baby was here. I heard a little crying. It was really nice, everybody started clapping,” Ramsey said.
Mother and baby were rushed to the Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance following the “smooth, successful delivery,” DeMarco said.
DeMarco said that since the mother wasn’t expecting to deliver, she didn’t have a name picked out.
A hospital spokeswoman did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
A manager at the Torrance Barnes & Noble declined to comment to ABC News.
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