Survivor Of Amish Shooting Gives Birth

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, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The 22-year-old woman, who would give her name only as Lydia, gave birth Oct. 10, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The child is named Naomi Rose, 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 but released Lydia, along with three other women with infants, and 15 male students. He then tied up and shot 10 young girls, killing five of them, 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.

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.

Besides Naomi Rose Ebersol, the girls fatally shot by Roberts were Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12; Marian Fisher, 13; and sisters Mary Liz Miller, 8, and Lena Miller, 7.