Couple delivers baby while driving on Beltway 8

Call it the “Beltway Birth!”  A Lake Jackson woman delivered a 10-pound baby boy while her husband was driving on Beltway 8 near Houston.  And here’s the kicker:  He recorded the whole thing with his Go-Pro camera and posted it to Youtube!

It was a drive unlike any other for the very pregnant Lesia Pettijohn and her husband Jonathan. “Oh Babe, Oh Babe,” the woman says before screaming during a contraction.  The day was Monday, July 13th. .  The couple was trying to get to Pasadena and the “Bay Area Birth Center” to deliver their baby.  It turns out he had other plans!   Less than a minute into the 4:01 video, Lesia screams “My water broke, my water broke!”

"Shocking, it's amazing," said Jackie Griggs who’s a nurse/midwife at the birth center.  She wasn’t there when the couple arrived. "Natural child birth happens sometimes no matter where you are," she said.

Lesia screams “It hurts so bad,” while begging her husband to “please get her there” and he keeps driving.  “Oh my gosh it's coming out, it's coming out," she exclaims.

Jonathan helps pull down her pants and then unbuckles her seat belt.  “The baby is out of me babe," she cries.  And then… music to their ears.   "We had a baby,” said Jonathan as the baby cries.           

Ten-pound, 3 ounce Josiah, the couple’s third child was born perfectly healthy.  "That's a big baby," said Griggs.   Lesia was scared the baby might not be breathing when her husband calms her down.  “If he's crying he's breathing," said Jonathan.  "I'm just amazed at how well she did, the baby immediately turned pink so he was healthy," said Griggs.

Five minutes later the Pettijohn’s got to the birth center with their newest addition.  "Oh my gosh, we just had a baby in a car,” cried Lesia.   “We did it, high five babe,” responded her husband.  "That's the first time we've ever had something like that happen, it's not common," said Griggs. "It did go perfectly.  We're thankful for that because we know for a big baby like that there could've been a problem," she said.

At the end of the video, Jonathan jokingly asks “So I wonder if we still have to pay for using the birth center?”