Christela Diaz, the Aberdeen woman who gave birth to a boy in her car near exit 109 of the Parkway Tuesday, tells the Asbury Park Press that she and her husband were shocked by little Zachary’s sudden arrival.
For one thing, the baby wasn’t due until Oct. 16. And the couple “had just left a doctor’s office in Holmdel on Tuesday after a routine checkup with Diaz’s doctor when the 26-year-old woman began experiencing contractions,” the Press reports.
Diaz and her husband, Anthony Nina, were heading south on the Parkway when Diaz “suddenly began clutching his hand and yelling that she could feel the baby coming.”
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Nina said he tried to hurry to Riverview Medical Center. But by the time he got off the Parkway at Exit 109, his wife had already given birth in their Nissan Murano sport-utility vehicle and was holding a 6 pound, 2 ounce baby boy against her chest, wrapped up in her blouse.
After Diaz gave birth by the Parkway ramp onto Newman Springs Road around 3 p.m., Nina immediately called 911 while en route to the hospital. An EMT instructed him to pull over.
A Middletown police corporal, first on the scene, and emergency crews met and assisted the couple at the intersection of Half Mile Road and Newman Springs Road. Emergency responders checked to see if the baby was breathing and then cut the umbilical cord and took mother and son to the hospital.
“God was looking over us because in that situation, anything can happen,” Nina said.
Diaz, who is from Texas, said in her hospital room on Wednesday that she was able to handle the situation in the car because “instincts totally kicked in.” She was on an adrenaline rush the whole time, she said.
At home, Zachary will be sharing a room with his 18-month-old brother, who was born in a hospital in Texas, Diaz said. She is scheduled to go home today.
