California Woman Gives Birth In Lobby Of Barnes & Noble

Torrance, CA — A woman gave birth in the lobby of a Barnes & Noble Friday night.

Firefighters responded to a call of a woman in labor at the bookstore in the Del Amo Fashion Center a little after 7:30 pm, said Capt. Steve Deuel of the Torrance Fire Department.

“It was a little bit chaotic when we arrived because a lot of the customers didn’t know what was happening,” Deuel said. “But mom knew because it was not her first child.” According to The Guardian, the firefighters were trying to decide whether to put the woman — who was eight months pregnant — in an ambulance or keep her in the store when they realized the baby was already on its way.

“The baby made that decision for them,” Deuel said. “They went ahead and delivered a healthy baby boy.”

The mother and the baby, who have not been identified, were taken to Little Company of Mary Medical Center. Both are doing well, Deuel said.

Firefighter Chad DeMarco told ABC News that authorities controlled crowds in the bookstore to give the woman space. Paramedics covered her with a cloth to give her privacy as she delivered her son at the front of the store.

“Usually we prefer to deliver in the was denied hospital, but the baby was coming out,” DeMarco said. “We cut the cord in the Barnes & Noble.”

DeMarco said since the woman wasn’t expecting to deliver just yet, she hadn’t picked out a name.

In Mexico earlier this month, a woman who was denied at a health center gave birth on the lawn of the facility. Irma Lopez was also eight months pregnant when she went to the Rural Health Center in San Felipe Jalapa de Diaz in Oaxaca. When she arrived at the center with her husband, she was sent outside to “walk.” As she walked, her water broke, and her husband left to get help. Lopez “squatted” in her dress on the lawn of the clinic and gave birth to a baby boy. Lopez said she named her son Salvador, which means savior, because “he really saved himself.”

In August, a Nevada woman gave birth in the restroom of a Subway sandwich shop after running into the restaurant and saying she was in labor. Assistant manager Flora Vargas and her boss followed the woman into the bathroom with sandwich wrappers and trash bags, which they placed on the floor for sanitation purposes. After several minutes, with the help of Vargas and the East Fork Fire and Paramedic District, the woman gave birth to a “beautiful boy.”

[Photo credit: phototakeouterBX / Flickr]