New mom names son Uber after driver delivers her baby in the back of his car
On a recent episode of The Mindy Project, new mother Mindy Lahiri met two pushy preschool moms who had named their infants Sriracha and Gratitude. That a kid name Sriracha would exist isn't that hard to believe — and neither is the idea that next year's class at Little Doorways Academy for Ethical Children would include at least one baby named Uber. Well, on Sunday, after giving birth in the back of one lucky driver's car, a woman in New Delhi announced that her own son would be named after the ridesharing service.
According to The Times of India, the woman knew she was going into labor and repeatedly called for an ambulance, but no one at the dispatch service answered the phone. She then requested an Uber and, shortly after the driver picked her up, they had to stop because the baby wasn't going to wait until they arrived at the hospital. The driver, named Shahnawaz, told the paper:
"The woman was writhing in pain and her friends did not know what to do. I pulled out the towels from the seats and poured some drinking water into a bowl. The child was born within minutes and I was really happy to see that he was responding."
The group — along with one brand new passenger — continued to the hospital, where Shahnawaz placed the new mom on a stretcher and carried her into the building himself (and if there was ever a reason to give your driver a 5-star rating, "successfully delivered my baby" has to be it). "This was one of the happiest moments of my life," Shahnawaz said.
Little baby Uber isn't alone — this situation apparently happens often enough that Uber had an official policy for babies born in the back of its cars. According to Business Insider, one employee wrote on an Uber forum:
"It's standard practice in NYC. If we hear of a baby born in a car or someone requesting an Uber to get to the hospital and give birth, they'll get a onesie. Some even send in pictures of the baby afterwards, and all of us female [Customer Service Representatives] get all mushy over it."
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In March, a Brooklyn-based museum curator Zanna Gilbert gave birth to her own daughter in the back of an Uber. "I just kept telling the driver I was sorry,” the baby's dad, David Horvitz told the New York Post. “But he said, ‘Don’t worry, that was amazing!’” Yes, Uber sent them a onesie. And it also paid to have the driver's car professionally cleaned.
Disappointingly, that couple opted to name the baby Ela Melanie instead of Uber, Nissan Altima...or Sriracha.