Newlyweds Kevin and Chelsea Cutler began driving to hospital alone at 7:20 Tuesday morning.
By 7:30 a.m. there were three people in the car, yet they made no stops along the way.
How is this possible? The answer is baby Jack Cutler was born en route.
"Kev did a great job of driving and catching our son," Chelsea told The Citizen. "He was driving with one hand and had the baby's head in the other as he came out, and lifted him up onto my chest as we pulled into emerg."
Chelsea said she wouldn't have faulted him for passing out from the shock and calamity of it all, but marveled that "he was still using his blinkers on turns and everything."
Kevin said a collection of factors led to the mobile birth of their son. They had planned to give birth at home using a midwife, and had been in contact with their caregiver the day before Jack was born, but they still got caught off guard by his arrival.
Labour pains began at Christmas, the couple said, so after a few weeks of minor tremors it was no longer possible to anticipate the big earthquake coming.
This is Kevin's first child but Chelsea's third, and she was true to motherly form for a repeat mom - once the real urgency did present itself the baby was only minutes away despite her water not breaking until the birth was fully underway.
They were sure of one thing, by early Tuesday morning. There was no time to call in their midwife, and not only were their own two kids in the house but their niece and nephew as well.
They didn't want to subject all four to the sights and sounds of childbirth so they had to abandon the home birth plan. Kevin's sister Mandy Johnson stayed to look after the children and the couple made a break for it in their
Subaru Forester.
It was only a 10 or 15 minute drive from their home near Foothills Boulevard, but it was two minutes too long. As Kevin crossed Central Street, Chelsea had her feet on the dash and informed him there was no way for her to hold back the birthing momentum.
By the time they rounded the corner of 15th Avenue onto Edmonton Street, in between the hospital and the adjacent ambulance station, the baby crowned and Kevin had to catch his head while still driving.
One block later, turning left at the four-way stop at Lethbridge Street/13th Avenue, the shoulders emerged into his right hand, his left still gripping the steering wheel.
It took only a few more seconds to wheel up the road and hook left into the Emergency Room parking lot but baby Jack was now a full resident of earth and nestled on Chelsea's chest.
"He started crying right away just as I was asking 'Is he breathing, is he breathing?'" Kevin said.
"I tooted the horn because the ER doors were open.
"A security guard was there and ran around the car and called out to him that we just had a baby in the car, and people came to help."
Chelsea said the doctor laughed about it being the easiest delivery he ever had. All that was left was cutting the umbilical cord.
That is often the dad's honorary job, but Kevin didn't mind.
"I got to do something nobody gets to do. Feeling that little head in my hands and then his whole body coming out into the world..."
Chelsea said "He's talking about another baby already. Everything with us is an adventure.
It's a great story. We're still in shock, but what a really cool story, and on a full moon, too."
Johnson said the kids' "eyes got really big" when they heard the story back home. They were sure babies were supposed to be born somewhere like a bed, not the front seat of a car.
"The Subaru's front seat will never be the same," said Johnson. "My brother is kind of sentimental so it wouldn't surprise me if he never sold the car, ever, because that's where his son was born."
Northern Health was asked for comment but none was available as of press time.
