A pregnant woman who survived the shooting at an Amish school earlier this month has given birth and named the baby after one of the girls who was killed.
The 22-year-old woman, who would give her name only as Lydia, gave birth Oct. 10, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday. The child is named after 7-year-old Naomi Rose Ebersol, one of five girls fatally shot by Charles Carl Roberts IV.
The gunman took over the West Nickel Mines Amish School on Oct. 2 and released Lydia, along with three other women with infants, and 15 male students. He then tied up and shot 10 young girls before killing himself.
Lydia, a teacher at another nearby school, had gone to the West Nickel Mines school that day to visit her sister-in-law, Emma Mae Zook, who eventually ran to call for help.
“This baby saved my life,” Lydia said after the shooting, according to Catherine Saunders, one of the nurses who attended the birth of Naomi Rose.
The 6-pound, 4-ounce baby was delivered three weeks early at a birthing center in nearby Georgetown. The staff of three midwives delivers about 240 babies a year, half of them Amish or Mennonite, Saunders said.
Four of the 10 girls who were shot had been delivered at the birthing center, Saunders said. Two of them died.