Woman gives birth in McDonald's bathroom

LAKE WALES, Fla., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- A Florida woman who stopped with a relative at McDonald's for coffee on the way to the hospital gave birth to a baby boy in the restaurant's bathroom.

Shardonnay Hill, 20, said she called her doctor because she wasn't feeling well. Nearing the seven-month mark of her first pregnancy, Hill's doctor told her to go to the hospital. Barbara Albert, Hill's grandmother, drove them but said she needed to stop for coffee because she was tired after just having returned from a trip, the Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger reported.

Albert said it's a good thing she did because the pair would never have made it to the hospital in time.

While at the counter ordering her coffee Monday morning at the McDonald's restaurant in Lake Wales, Fla., Hill had to go to the bathroom. A short time later an employee said Hill was shouting for Albert to come to the restroom. When she did, Albert said the baby was already partially out.

Albert said restaurant employees scrambled to get cardboard for Hill to lay on. An employee named Phyllis delivered the child at the direction of an emergency dispatcher on the phone with another worker.

Albert said the baby, Joshua Murphy, was just 2 ½ pounds but is doing well after being airlifted to a children's hospital in St. Petersburg. Hill was being kept for observation overnight at a hospital in Davenport, Fla., but will be reunited with her baby soon, Albert said.

"I was not ready for this today," Albert said. "I just thank God I needed that caffeine."