Opera Singer Emily Hardman Gives Birth in a Car on a New Jersey Highway

A New York opera singer delivered her own baby in a car on the highway in New Jersey last week, Daily Voice reports.

Emily Hardman was in the car with her husband, Travis Hardman, on Route 78 in New Jersey on the morning of May 15. At 5:47 a.m., baby girl Rosemary Claire Hardman was born at milepost 20.2 on the eastbound side of the highway in Lebanon.

"It went from 'Pull over'... to 'There's a baby,' in less than a minute," Hardman said. "It felt empowering. I did it all by myself. And I actually got most of what was on my birth plan, except for the location and providers."

The plan was to deliver at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut with midwives from the Connecticut Childbirth and Women's Center. But she felt the baby's head while in the back seat of the car, and plans quickly changed.

The family was at home when Emily's water broke, and at 4 a.m. they began a four-hour drive to Danbury, CT from Lancaster, PA. She was guided by a meditation app and contraction app, which talked her through the pain while in the car.

"I was focused on relaxing my body and breathing through the contractions, acknowledging that there was nothing I could do to stop what was happening," she said. "I had to go along for the ride and trust my body."

Hardman also said that being a trained opera singer helped.

"Being able to control my breath was helpful in labor," she said. "I used low moans, lip trills and slow exhales to keep me calm."

At 5:45 a.m., Emily told Travis to pull over, but it wasn't safe to do so. With the next contraction, the baby had arrived.

An ambulance arrived in approximately 10 minutes, and took Emily and her baby to St. Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick. After 24 hours, they were released from the hospital - both in perfect health.

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