French tourist has surprise birth

BRADENTON, Florida -- A French tourist was shocked to give birth on a tour bus while on holiday in Florida, saying she was unaware she was pregnant.

Sophie Proust, who lives near Paris, gave birth to a 2.6-kilogram (five pound, nine ounce) girl in the rest room of the bus on Sunday.

Proust told the Bradenton Herald daily: "I didn't know I was pregnant. I had stomach pains and thought I had to go to the rest room."

Proust, 28, was on the fourth day of her vacation, just coming from Disney World.

The pains began early Sunday morning as Proust and her brother, Florian, boarded the tour bus for a trip to Tampa, the Everglades and Key West.

When the bus stopped at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in southwest Florida to let passengers take pictures, Proust said she realised she was giving birth and called the bus driver for help.

A staff member at a local emergency communications centre relayed instructions to a passenger at a pay phone on the bridge, who passed the information to another passenger who told the bus driver what to do.

By the time an ambulance arrived, the baby was already born. Proust was taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Chandra Williams, who treated Proust, said she told her she had not skipped her menstrual cycle and did not know she was pregnant.

Williams said the baby, named Karen, appears to be doing fine.

Arrangements are being made through the French consulate in Miami to register the baby as a French citizen when she returns home with Proust, the hospital told The Associated Press.

Any child born on American soil is automatically a citizen of the United States regardless of the mother's nationality.

"When we were in the bus on the day she was born, she was smiling, smiling, smiling," Proust said. "I feel good."