Baby born on sled after Philly snowstorm

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia woman is going to have quite a story to tell her daughter about the day she was born.

Bella Sophia Bonanni was born on a sled at around 6 a.m. Wednesday in the city’s Roxborough neighborhood.

“I woke up with contractions, they were about 10 minutes apart. So we thought we had plenty of time to go to the hospital,” mom Shirley Kim Bonanni told WPVI-TV.

By the time she showered and was ready to go, the contractions were too quick and too strong for her to walk.

Her husband couldn’t drive up their steep, hilly street, so Fabian Bonnani put his wife in their toddler’s plastic sled and began pulling her to the car.

But the baby wouldn’t wait. With the help of neighbors and a 911 dispatcher providing instructions for Fabian Bonnani, 7 lb. 9 oz. Bella was born on the roadside.

“I was on the phone with 911, talking him through it, and he certainly delivered his own baby, right there, on the side of the road,” neighbor George Leader said.

Fabian Bonanni took the baby, wrapped in blankets, back up to their house. His parents, who just had witnessed their granddaughter’s birth, helped Leader and his roommate carry Shirley Bonanni, still on the sled, inside to keep warm.

An ambulance made it up the snowy hill and transported mother and baby to the hospital. Both doing fine and are expected to go home in a couple of days.

The Bonannis do not have a listed telephone number and Shirley Bonanni’s telephone at the hospital rang unanswered Wednesday night.