A Brampton family's drive to Credit Valley Hospital ended in a gas station parking lot in Mississauga last week, when their third son decided he would not wait for the delivery room.

The mother, Jelissa, told insauga.com that her labour began suddenly at about 5:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 28. She was full term and had planned a hospital birth at Credit Valley, where her obstetrics team is based. She and her husband, Tyrone, loaded their two young sons into the car and set off from Brampton.

Nowhere safe to stop

The family were about 10 minutes from the hospital when her water broke, and the urge to push came quickly after. Jelissa, who works as a nurse, called 911, and a dispatcher stayed on the line to guide her. With a car seat directly behind her, she could not recline the front seat as the dispatcher suggested.

With Highway 401 ahead, Tyrone pulled into a gas station lot near Battleford Road and Mississauga Road. By the time paramedics arrived, the baby was already partly delivered. Crews helped complete the birth with the car door open to temperatures around -20 C, wrapped the newborn in blankets and placed him on his mother's chest.

There's a point where you realize, I'm doing this myself…and I was scared.

— Jelissa, speaking to insauga.com

She said the cold was the part that frightened her most, because the door was open as the baby arrived. Once she heard him cry, she said, the fear gave way to joy.

A surprise, twice over

The couple had chosen not to learn the baby's sex ahead of time. In the ambulance, Tyrone asked whether it was a boy or a girl, and Jelissa realized she had not yet looked. It was another boy. They named him Micah.

Mother and son were taken to Credit Valley Hospital, where Jelissa stayed for a few days. She recalled that seven or eight responders came to the scene, including paramedics, supervisors and fire crews. Family members have since given Micah an unofficial nickname inspired by the gas station where he was born, and she said the story became a running joke with doctors and nurses on the ward.

The family had bought the car only three weeks earlier. Mother and baby are now home and doing well.

Her advice to anyone who finds themselves in a similar emergency was simple: stay calm, tell yourself it will be okay and call 911.