Niurka Roman, a bus driver of Cuban origin who has been living in Bologna for three decades, was involved in a heartwarming incident on Saturday that touched Italy: she assisted a passenger in giving birth on the bus of route 39 operated by Tper, on Via Saffi, in front of the Maggiore Hospital in the city.
According to the Italian agency ANSA, it all began shortly after 9:00 AM when a passenger alerted Roman that a woman was unwell. The driver immediately recognized the passenger: a 38-year-old woman of Nigerian descent who had boarded the vehicle at the central station in Bologna and who was pregnant.
Roman, who has been driving buses for Tper for three years, reacted quickly. He asked the passengers to help the woman breathe, convinced that she was having contractions. "I'm a mother, and I know what that means," he explained. Since the passenger didn’t speak Italian, the driver instructed those around her to use gestures to guide her breathing.
When a passenger informed him that the woman was removing her clothes and wanted to push, Roman made a decision: to stop the bus in front of the hospital. "A girl studying engineering, who was fantastic, shouted that the baby’s head was already out. So I stopped in front of the hospital, got out of the cabin, and at that moment the baby came out and cried," recounted the driver.
Roman hurried to grab a pareo he used on his seat, wrapped the newborn in it, and asked the engineering student to hold the baby while she looked for more blankets to keep the little one warm. At the same time, he organized the others: he asked someone outside the bus to call 118 and told a man inside to run to the hospital for assistance.
Emergency services arrived quickly and took the mother and her baby—a boy—to Hospital Maggiore, where both were admitted in good health.
The next day, Roman gave an interview to ANSA in which he described what had happened as "a hug of humanity." "What happened will stay in my heart. I witnessed the help and humanity of those who were present. They supported me, considering that I was driving a bus, and then followed my instructions, helping me cope with an event of this magnitude," he stated.
The Cuban arrived in Bologna about 30 years ago and secured her position as a driver after training through the employment integration program "Insieme per il lavoro," an initiative created in 2017 by the Municipality of Bologna, the Metropolitan City, and the Archdiocese of the city to facilitate employment for people in vulnerable situations. Since its inception, the program has assisted over 5,000 individuals.
The episode was highlighted by multiple Italian media outlets also for its multicultural dimension: the host is Cuban, the mother is Nigerian, and among the passengers who helped were people from different nationalities, something that several outlets emphasized as a symbol of coexistence and integration. Cuban Women in Italy like Roman are part of a community that often faces difficulties in job integration, making their journey even more significant.
"It was a very beautiful embrace of humanity that we shared to support this birth," concluded Niurka Roman.
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