(WXYZ) — For Kyneisha Johnigan, giving birth is not new, but doing it at a homeless shelter is.
“I was contracting and I was walking around the building,” Johnigan said. “I was like, 'I’m going to drive myself to the hospital.' And then I’m like, 'wait,' and I felt down in my below area and I felt his head."
On Friday, Johnigan gave birth to her fifth child, Jasir Smith, inside her room at Genesis House II. Genesis House II is a homeless shelter on the city's west side for women and children.
Extended interview: Johnigan talks about delivering in the shelter
The mom of five says the staff tried to get her to the hospital, but because Jasir was already coming down, they helped her deliver instead.
“She was like, 'get to pushing. Come on, we got it. We gone do this,'" Johnigan said about the staff member who assisted her delivery. “She was like, 'I’m a mama, you a mama. We gonna get through this.'"
Dr. Chad Audi, the CEO of the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries and the umbrella that Genesis House II falls under, says Jasir’s birth is a first of its kind for the shelter.
“We’ve had people pregnant, getting ready to have a baby,” Audi said. “We had them leave out of here and deliver in the hospital. But delivering on the floor, or on the bed of where they’re staying, this is the first time.”
Johnigan says living in a shelter is a first for her. She said she and her children ended up at the shelter after her landlord lost the home they were living in. Before arriving at Genesis House II, Johnigan said she and her children were staying with Jasir’s father, but they left because she wanted to find a place of her own.
“I just want better for my children,” Johnigan said through tears. "And sometimes I feel like I’m not doing enough."
But, Audi says Johnigan is right where she is supposed to be, because to him, Genesis means a new start.
“We like to call the shelters names that reflect the good things about the population we are serving,” Audi said. “Genesis is coming from genesis, a new beginning, a new birth.”
Johnigan said she hopes that is exactly what this special delivery means for her family.
“I got five little people calling me mama. I got to be strong, if not for me, for them," she said.
