The surprise birth of a baby under a Muni bus shelter that we mentioned in brief on Wednesday turns out to have been a surprise to the mother herself. As the Chronicle reports, the birth at Market and 6th Street was witnessed by multiple people, and was just further proof that things on 6th Street never, ever change.
The woman, who may suffer from mental illness, apparently did not know she was pregnant when she suddenly went into labor and gave birth without making a sound on Monday afternoon. She pushed the child out and it landed on the sidewalk, and says Ayrron Comini, a DJ at the nearby Crazy Horse strip club, "I came out just after the baby hit the ground. It was just this purple little thing." The mother appeared dazed and possibly in shock afterwards.
It seems that multiple people just stood by and watched this unfold, with one shooting cell phone video of it that you can see above, which was edited and aired by KRON 4.
But one man, a passing bicycle messenger, stepped in immediately to help the child, taking the t-shirt off his back to swaddle the infant and wiping the gunk out of his eyes. Comini says he was the real hero and "probably saved that baby's life."
The child, who was born one month premature, is reportedly doing OK, and both s/he and the mother remain hospitalized.