A Florida woman whose family reported her missing months ago has been identified as the woman who gave birth onboard a New York City subway.
Jenny Saint Pierre, 25, of Hallandale Beach, was reported missing to her hometown police in September, after her family said they had not seen her since the summer, the New York Times reports.
A missing persons poster noted that she is ‘currently pregnant and may be in need of services that meet the criteria of an endangered person.’
Despite the report, Saint Pierre’s family was left without answers for months.
Then on Wednesday, a subway straphanger shared video online showing Saint Pierre lying on the floor of a southbound W train at the 34th Street Herald Square station, as a fellow passenger held her newborn daughter.
‘POV: You’re headed to work and you witness someone give birth on the train,’ Bryanna Brown wrote in the description of the video, in which officers could be heard reporting a ‘medical situation’ as another passenger warns there will be ‘just a little cut’ to remove the umbilical cord.
‘Only in NYC,’ Brown added.
Police later confirmed to the Times that the woman who gave birth was Saint Pierre, and authorities say both she and her daughter are in the hospital in good condition.
They said the incident occurred as the southbound W train was pulling into the 34th Street-Herald Square station in Manhattan at around 11.30am.
Saint Pierre had already been on the train for about 25 minutes at that point, when she started alerting other passengers she was about to give birth, straphangers told PIX 11.
‘She started screaming, “I’m pregnant,”‘ Brown recounted to the news station.
Then, when the train arrived at 34th Street, some of her fellow passengers asked the crew to stop the vehicle.
‘One of the ladies told the conductor, “Don’t move the train. Don’t move the train. A lady is giving birth at the moment,”‘ Brown said.
‘At that point, I realized this is really happening.’
Others on the train, meanwhile, sprang into action, with Riley Allen saying he assisted in Saint Pierre’s post-delivery care as paramedics were racing to the scene.
‘They were asking, “Does anyone have scissors? Does anyone on the train have scissors?” Because the train was still moving,’ he said.
‘And I said, “I have a pocket knife.”
Several women then also stepped up and assisted the mother by cutting the umbilical cord with Allen’s knife.
Eventually, a New York City Transit train service supervisor and multiple police officers responded to the scene, USA Today reports.
Officers also called Emergency Medical Services and got Saint Pierre – who was conscious and alert – and her child to a local hospital.
‘This is another example of New Yorkers coming together to help each other, assisted by caring transit workers and other responders, reflecting the best of the subway community and this city,’ New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said.
‘We are thrilled that both mother and Baby W are doing well and look forward to welcoming both of them back aboard for a lifetime of reliable – and hopefully less dramatic – rides.’
Saint Pierre’s family members said they did not know she was in the Big Apple or why she had gone there.
But they said Wednesday they are relieved to hear she and her daughter are doing well.
‘Oh my God, look at her little face!’ Saint Pierre’s sister, Stephanie, said after watching the video from her home in Texas.
She said she recognized her sister’s pink duffel bag and heard her voice for the first time since her disappearance in the video.
‘Oh my God, I am going to cry! That’s my first niece.’
Saint Pierre’s mother, Chrismene Saint Pierre, also said she was thrilled of the news of her first grandchild’s birth and could not stop watching the video.
‘I’ve been thinking about my daughter every day, praying every day that she’s OK, that her baby is OK,’ she told the Times. ‘I’m going to sleep good tonight.’
Chrismene added that she wanted her daughter – the second eldest of five – to know that she could return home and her entire family would be there waiting for her.
‘We will always be there for her and for her baby,’ she said.