When a New York woman went into labor, she left home to hail a cab for the hospital. But seconds later, she gave birth on a wintry Manhattan sidewalk.

Starting out as a true New Yorker in a hurry, the baby girl was in such a rush to enter the world that she couldn't wait for her mother Polly McCourt to get to the hospital on Monday afternoon.

Also in New York style, it happened in front of a TV crew from Fox 5, who were en route to another story when they spotted the woman on Third Avenue and East 68th Street.

"She was like 'oh my God the baby's coming' and then I could see the baby's head coming out," one passer-by told Fox 5.

"As soon as the head came out, by the time we laid her down on the street the baby was out!" she added.

"Miracle on third avenue!" another witness told the network.

McCourt and her daughter Ila were taken to Lenox Hill Hospital, where a spokeswoman told AFP they were "doing wonderful."

The pair are expected to remain under observation until Wednesday before returning to their Upper East Side home.

Ila is the third child for McCourt and her husband, the hospital told AFP.