Md. Woman Delivers Baby In Traffic

BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- Even traffic doesn't stop Mother Nature. A Maryland woman rushing to the hospital in labor was stopped in a traffic jam. The baby was not about to wait for the roads to clear, though.

Mary Bubala has the story.

You can hear the pains Jeromeka Chappell is going through as she gives birth to a baby daughter in her father's car. Jeromeka's father called 911 as they were stuck in traffic on their way to Washington Hospital Center. Meanwhile, Jeromeka was in immense pain and could feel her daughter coming.

"'Lord, Daddy, Lord, Daddy! Here she comes! Here she comes!'" said Jeromeka's father. "And she started pulling off her clothes."

"I started to take my sweat pants and stuff off in the car and put all my clothes down, and I put my leg up on the dashboard," Chappell said.

"Jeromeka mentioned, 'I'm not going to make it to the fire station because the baby is on the way,'" her father said. 

"I felt one push and I felt her head," Chappell said. "That's when I put my leg up further and I felt her arms and stuff. With the last push, she came on out on the seat."

Little Janae arrived about 10 minutes before the ambulance. Her mother held her until the emergency crews arrived.

Janae was about seven days overdue. Both mom and baby are coming home from the hospital Wednesday.