Baby born in car outside hospital, parents describe wild ride

BERKELEY, CA -- One-day-old Amaro is a healthy baby girl, but her journey into the world was anything but.

She took her parents on a wild ride. She was born in a car, in a parking lot outside Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley.

"It was slow, normal labor," said her father Dan Stone. "And then within about a half an hour, it was mayhem."

Mom Kim started having contractions the night before and by morning things took off. They got into the car for the short drive to the hospital but Amaro would not wait.

"My water broke on the drive," said mother Kim Gooden. "And it's only a five-minute drive."

RELATED: Baby born in bathroom of Nissan dealership

Stone says when they pulled up he could see the baby girl's head. "By the time I was able to get her to sit down and lay back the baby was being born," he said.

A labor and delivery nurse happened to be in the right place at the right time. She just arrived for her shift, heard screaming and ran to the car to help.

She called for a "code stork," an announcement that lets the hospital know there's a baby being born outside.

"And what that gets is a physician, our baby team, and any extra nurses that are available to just come help see where we're at at that delivery process," said Assistant Manager of Labor and Delivery Cami Bushey. "And help get mom and baby up to labor and delivery as soon as possible."

Surveillance video shows the crowd of hospital staff surrounding the car. The nurse who came to help has 32 years of experience, but Thursday was the first time she delivered a baby on her own.

Mom, dad, and baby are all healthy and although it was chaotic, it's a story they look forward to sharing with her little girl when she's older.