Dad Delivers Early Bundle of Joy on Busy Highway

Delaware couple were en route to birthing center.

ByABC News
July 9, 2014, 1:28 PM

— -- A Delaware woman is recovering after her newborn daughter arrived slightly earlier than expected.

Joe and Melissa Alan were on their way to the hospital with Melissa Alan in labor, when the expectant mom realized they weren't going to make it to the birthing center.

“It hit fast, it came fast and we did not have any time to get up there,” Melissa Alan told ABC News affiliate WPVI-TV in Philadelphia.

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The couple was attempting an hour drive from their home to their planned birthing center but their daughter had other plans.

“Forty minutes down the road I told him to stop. We had to deliver there,” Melissa Alan told WPVI-TV. “I knew I was giving birth in my car.”

Fortunately, Joe Alan managed to stay relatively calm during the whole ordeal. After helping his wife into the back seat so she could safely deliver the baby, called 911.

“I saw [my daughter's] head and that’s when it hit me, 'we’re having a baby,'” Joe Alan told WPVI, who said the 911 operator was able to walk him through the delivery process. “I was yelling, ‘we’re having a baby on the side of route 1.’”

In spite of the drama, Bayleigh Kait was delivered safely just a minute after the couple pulled over. Both mother and daughter are doing fine, although the couple’s car might need a little help.

On Joe Alan’s Facebook page, the new father asked “So .... Who knows a good vehicle interior detailer?”