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Birth on a French sidewalk: Baby gets helper's name
Photo: Stefan Puchner / dpa
After a spontaneous birth on a sidewalk near Paris, the happy mother gave her son the name of the man who helped her give birth with a cool head. The 34-year-old was surprised by contractions on the street last week and was writhing in pain on a traffic island when the man passed by in the car, the newspaper "Le Parisien" reported.
The former Algerian firefighter, who was in France without papers, stopped immediately. He assisted the 34-year-old during the birth until he held the newborn in his arms.
The man told the newspaper that he had already experienced such situations during his work at the fire department in Algeria and calmed his mother down accordingly. Later, a young woman also helped him until the ambulance arrived. He later couldn't sleep for several nights because of all the emotions.
When he visited his mother in the hospital, he found out that she had given her little son his name: Rabah. The mayor of the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois, where the birth took place, thanked the courageous helper. He is now hoping for residence papers so that he can work in his actual job again.
aeh/dpa