Baby Born On Side Of Rt. 1 In South Brunswick

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ - Early Friday morning, Seth and Bethany Mandel were racing down Rt. 1 south. But unlike most Rt. 1 commuters, they weren't headed to work. Instead, their destination was labor and delivery at the University Medical Center of Princeton, as Bethany was nine months pregnant and having contractions. What nobody expected was that they wouldn't make it in time, and that their baby boy would be born on the side of Rt. 1 at Jeff's Garage auto body shop in South Brunswick Township.

The young couple live with their two other children in Highland Park and always planned to deliver at the Princeton hospital. Bethany had had two false labor scares the day earlier, and they had gone to the hospital before, only to be sent home. But sure enough, on Friday morning, the labor pains started up again.

"(We) were passing through South Brunswick, NJ, on Route 1 South when she turned to me from the passenger seat. 'He’s coming!' she said. 'We need to pull over!,' Seth recalled in this first-hand account he wrote for the New York Post, where is the editorial page editor.

The couple was still 20 minutes north of the Princeton hospital, but they knew they weren't going to make it. Desperate, Seth looked for the nearest parking lot and pulled into the gravel lot of Jeff's Garage. From there, he called 911.

"The dispatcher said, 'Help us find you.' And I looked up and said, 'Jeff’s Garage!' Seth wrote. But South Brunswick police and EMS would not get there in time. The Mandel's healthy, 9-pound son was born just minutes later in the front seat of their 2006 Nissan Altima, which Seth pointed out has more than 130,000 miles on it. Seth caught his son and then wrapped him in his New York Rangers sweatshirt, the only thing he had available.

As Seth recounted, there were a few terrifying moments where the baby wasn't breathing. He had been born with the umbilical cord around his neck and he was a purple color.

"A couple of seconds later, he coughed, he breathed and he cried, and that’s when help arrived. By then, everything was beautiful," Seth wrote.

By then South Brunswick EMS arrived and found a healthy mother, a healthy newborn baby boy and a beaming dad. They took the family down the road to Princeton hospital, where the hospital kept them overnight for observation, Bethany told Patch. In total, her labor lasted about 45 minutes, she said on Twitter.

The couple is back home in Highland Park now with their son, and both mother and baby are doing fine, Bethany said. On Friday, the baby boy will have a Jewish circumcision ceremony called a bris and be given his name, in accordance with their faith. But until then, he has a nickname: Altima.

Photo used with permission from Bethany Mandel