A baby boy was born on the platform of an aptly-named D.C. metro station Thursday morning. L'Enfant, the name of the stop, means "the child" in French, which makes this particular station turning into a maternity ward a fantastic coincidence.
D.C.'s Metro Transit Police Department made the announcement on Twitter at 10:48 a.m. :
According to the Washington Post, the 23-year-old new mom was traveling on the Green Line when her water broke. An off-duty EMT escorted the woman off the train to deliver her baby. Just after 11:00 AM, the agency confirmed, "It's a boy!"
And then, they tweeted some good news:
Naturally, jokes relating to WMATA, the beleaguered transit authority, ensued immediately:
Political jabs were quick to come, too:
L'Enfant station is named for Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French-born engineer and architect best known for his grand design for the nation's capital. May we suggest Pierre as the new bebe's name?
Update, 1:22 p.m.: We'd failed to notice that Friday, adding to the coincidences, is Pierre L'Enfant's birthday!
Update, 3:07 p.m.: New mom Shavonnte Taylor got more than just a baby boy from Metro today:
From this WMATA tweet, it appears we have a name for our metro baby as well: Amir. Amir L'Enfant has a nice ring to it, right? And congratulations again to the new family!
Update, Aug. 2, 9:00 a.m.: The Washington Post spoke with Taylor at the George Washington University Hospital on Thursday night.
Taylor, whose due date was Aug. 17, was on her way to an obstetrician’s appointment when her contractions began:
She stepped out of a Green Line train and tried to head to the platform with Orange and Blue Line trains, but she didn’t make it very far.
“Once I got off the train, they got worse and they were coming back to back,” Taylor said of her contractions. “It took me down to my knees.”
Taylor said she was wearing a black and white maxi dress and that was the “only thing separating me from the platform floor.”
An off-duty, emergency medical technician, Autumn Manka, heard screaming and came to Taylor's aid, delivering the baby, born at 10:31 a.m., on the Metro station platform.
According to NBC Washington, baby Amir-Mason Taylor is 8 pounds, 5 ounces and was born in about 10 minutes.
"Popped right out like she was a quarterback," Station Manager Saa Alpha told the station. "I've never seen anything like it, a baby being born, not even my own children."
"I'm so thankful that they're okay," grandmother Sharon Taylor told News4.
This is a developing story, literally...
Flickr photo by JACK'S LOST FILM, used under a Creative Commons License.
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