A gut-wrenching video is making the rounds on social media of a woman in crisis giving birth on a sidewalk near the Tenderloin, though thankfully the SF Fire Department says the woman and child are now both doing okay.

We definitely need to preface this post with an obligatory content warning/trigger warning, as we are embedding a graphic and heartbreaking video. But as KTVU reports, a woman gave birth on a San Francisco sidewalk, and according to the video that’s being widely shared on Instagram, this took place near the intersection of Geary and Larkin streets.

Again, this video is extremely difficult to watch, and you may not wish to scroll further because it’s so graphic.


Whomever first posted this video has an Instagram account that seems to specialize in shock videos, and does not use a particularly sensitive tone. “Woman gives birth on the street after smoking crack all afternoon according to the witness who filmed the video,” the Instagram poster says. “Happened at a two minute walk from Union Square, in San Francisco on Geary Street 900 block.”

The video is rather brief, but the baby can be heard crying. A good Samaritan stopped to help, telling the woman, "It's going to be ok, just relax," and "Don't move, it's going to be fine. They are coming to pick you up."

But the SF Fire Department confirmed to KTVU that the incident did take place in San Francisco this past Thursday, and HIPPA privacy rules prevent them from releasing the woman’s name.

Thankfully, though, the department said in a statement to KTVU regarding the infant and mother that “both patients were taken to the hospital in stable condition."

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Image: Nobuyuki Kondo via Wikimedia Commons