New Yorkers rally around a mom in her time of need.

Vivian Manning-Schaffel: I often joke that my son shot out of me like a cannon: he went from water-break to hello in six hours, three weeks before his due date. We were ill prepared and it was mighty snowy, but at least he made his initial appearance in the safe haven of a heated hospital room.

As a result, my second pregnancy was plagued with nightmares about spontaneous births on the subway, in the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel -- even on the Brooklyn Bridge. The kid came to the party five weeks early, but again, as luck would have it, I had the fortune of donning a hospital-issue bracelet before she did.

This weekend, at 33 weeks along, Elizabeth Brew had no choice but to face my greatest fear. She made it all the way to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan from suburban Scarsdale, but never made it inside. Her twins were born right on Fifth Avenue!

The New York Post reports: "While she remained in the SUV, her legs extended toward busy Fifth Avenue and Central Park, her 4-pound, 13-ounce daughter was delivered right out on the avenue. A few minutes later, the second of the pair of twins, a 5-pound, 5-ounce boy, was delivered. Both children were healthy."

Upon hearing her screams out an open window, a nurse manager named Lucille Nassery grabbed a team of nurses, doctors, and anesthesiologists and rushed out to her side -- in the middle of the street! The article also describes how "Hospital staff used their bodies to block off two lanes of traffic while Brew delivered. Passengers in taxis stuck their heads out of windows to cheer and exclaim over the baby. Drivers stopped to yell out: 'Is the mother OK?'"

With such crazy doo-doo amuck in the world these days, it was both touching and inspirational to read a news story about how people rallied around this trooper of a mom in her time of need.

Do you know of anyone who gave birth in public?

Vivian Manning-Schaffel has written for Babble, Parenting, The Advocate, The New York Post, Business Week and a variety of other publications and lives and works in the heart of breeder Brooklyn with her husband and two kids. She authors two pop culture blogs: The Mad Mom and A Hag Supreme, and is on the web at vivianmanningschaffel.com.