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Philadelphia woman gives birth on sled after heavy snowstorm

by Reuters
Friday, 24 January 2014 16:39 GMT

By Daniel Kelley

PHILADELPHIA, Jan 24 (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania woman and her 2-day-old daughter were in good condition on Friday after she gave birth outdoors, sitting on a sled her husband had used to pull her through snow more than a foot (30 cm) deep to their car.

Shirley Kim Bonanni, 33, said she and her spouse were trying to get to their car to drive to the hospital - but the baby arrived before they could reach the vehicle.

The couple lives on a steep hill in Philadelphia. Her husband, Fabian, had bought the sled after a recent ice storm in case he and his pregnant wife would need to leave and be unable to navigate the streets by car.

"My reaction was 'no way in hell,'" she said. "He stubbornly bought the sleds anyway. In hindsight, he was right"

Bonanni gave birth on Wednesday with the help of her husband, who broke the umbilical cord with his hands, and neighbor George Leader, amid temperatures around 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 9 Celsius).

"In a matter of two minutes' time, the baby came out," Leader said. "It was really quick between the time I got out there and she took her clothes off and the time the baby came."

Paramedics soon arrived, taking the mother and her daughter, Bella Sung-Ah Sofia Bonanni, to Temple University Hospital.

Mother and child were listed in good condition on Friday, a hospital spokesman said.

Bonanni called the experience "surreal," saying, "Like, wow. I really had a baby in a sled outside." (Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Jonathan Oatis)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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