Woman Gives Birth in Moving Car on Tollway

Beth and Trevor Farina started their drive with two in the car and ended with three

Giving birth on the shoulder of a tollway isn't unheard of in Illinois, but Beth Farina took it a step further.

En route to Advocate Sherman Hospital in suburban Elgin early Tuesday, Farina felt the baby coming about a mile from the emergency room. Instead of pulling over, though, she told her husband, Trevor Farina, to keep going.

"When we got on the Tollway, I knew we were not going to make it to the hospital. I was like, 'This baby is coming, you better driver faster,'" Beth Farina said.

"She told me she feels like we need to push, and I said, 'The best I can do right now is pull over and call 911,' and she told me to keep going," Trevor Farina said.

Farina delivered her third child, a son named Tobias, in the couple's moving car. It all happened so fast that the next thing he knew, Trevor Farina looked over and saw his wife holding the crying baby.

"I waited for the next contraction, pushed him out, pulled him up onto my chest," Beth Farina said. "My husband was on the phone with 911 and they said, 'Do you have something to wrap him in?' We found something to wrap him in and wrapped him up."

Before Farina's contractions started Monday night, the family had gone to their basement because of a tornado warning. Trevor Farina said he fell asleep after the storm, but his wife didn't.

That's when the contractions began.

Farina was in labor for about five hours and assumed the delivery would go quickly as it had with her first two children. As they drove to the hospital, she said she could tell they wouldn't make it.

The couple arrived at the hospital with three in the car instead of two, and both the mom and her baby are doing well.

Farina said she attributes her calmness during the delivery to her training to become certified as a nurse-midwife -- and the fact that she's given birth twice before.

"It wasn't planned, but I'm glad it happened the way it did, because it will be a story for the rest of our lives," she said.

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