Birth plans are important. They help expectant mothers get clear about what they do and don’t want from one of the most sacred experiences of their lifetimes. With so many women feeling unheard and disempowered during their birthing experiences, it’s vital that the woman and the people around her go in with boundaries. Still, with all of that being said, the nature of birth is unpredictable.
Babies run the show and dictate how they will enter the world. That’s what one mother learned — or relearned — when she gave birth to her son on the side of a New York City highway.
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BelRaye Osborne told her husband to pull over once she realized they didn't have time to make it to the hospital.
At 7:30 a.m. on October 1, BelRaye and her husband were driving on the Jackie Robinson Parkway to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical, according to the New York Post. The couple, who are childhood sweethearts, were only 17 minutes into their journey when they realized they weren’t going to make it to the hospital. BelRaye was having contractions every other minute. The pressure on her body was so intense, that she told her husband to pull over onto the shoulder, Exit 5 on Myrtle Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard.
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BelRaye's husband asked if she had gas.
The third baby for the couple was making his grand and unforgettable entrance into the world. BelRaye, a certified life coach and high school language arts teacher, told her husband, “Babe, he’s coming. Pull over, he’s coming right now.”
Her husband Tru, a professional singer and music teacher, responded with a question. “Are your sure it’s not gas?” “My wife yelled, ‘No! Feel my stomach.’” When Tru touched her stomach, he could feel their son’s feet pressing against her rib cage.
‘How is this going to happen?' BelRaye asked herself as she delivered her baby on the side of the road.
Tru said it was as if the baby was using his wife’s ribs as leverage to kick himself out. “I said, ‘Oh no, we’re going to have this baby on the highway,’” he recalled. And that’s exactly what happened. Temple had freed himself in a matter of five seconds. “I let out one loud grunt and he slid right out,” BelRaye said.
While the delivery was quick, unexpected, and unplanned, it was still beautiful. “I had one foot in the car, one on the ground. I’m squatting on the side of the road,” she said, “and I’m like, ‘How is this going to happen?’”
BelRaye said doctors worried that the baby would be too big for a natural birth. But Temple, who weighed 8 lbs., 5 oz., was not only born naturally, he was born quickly. “It was so fast,” she said. “But those few seconds we felt the sacred connection between God, ourselves, and our baby.”
'All we had was each other and that’s all we needed,' BelRaye said of the birth.
After the birth, the couple flagged down a police officer, who escorted them to the hospital. Temple’s birth certificate lists Exit 5 Woodhaven as his place of birth. Once his parents were admitted to the hospital, they were able to reflect on what BelRaye describes as a “peacefully chaotic” experience.
“We just looked at each other and said, ‘Did that just happen?’” BelRaye laughed. “It wasn’t traumatic at all,” she said. “It was amazing. It was beautiful. All we had was each other and that’s all we needed.”
