A pregnant Toronto woman received help from Oprah Winfrey this week after her water broke during a taping of the talk show queen's program.

Lori McCrindle was in the audience of The Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago with her mother on Thursday when her water broke.

"I was 27 weeks pregnant," McCrindle told Winfrey on the air Friday during a telephone interview from Chicago's Rush University Medical Center. "I thought I'd be safe."

Winfrey rushed backstage to see McCrindle in the ambulance, and even helped her through a contraction.

McCrindle said the baby, Justin Heath McCrindle, was born about 20 minutes after the ambulance left the studio. He was 13 weeks premature and weighed two pounds, 13 ounces.

McCrindle told Winfrey that Justin is "battered and bruised" from the birth but otherwise "doing pretty good."

Doctors are monitoring the infant's heart and lungs. "It's going to be a long, rough road," McCrindle said.

Winfrey sent McCrindle her best wishes and said she'd fly her back to see a taping of the show whenever she wanted.