Baby Raine born in car during N.B. winter storm

MONCTON, N.B. – Ashley Hicks and Josh Gautreau may have named their new baby Raine, but years from now it will be the snow they remember most about his birth.

The New Brunswick infant was born in a car Monday morning during a snowstorm outside Moncton, N.B.

When Ashley Hicks started to go into labour in their home in Gallagher Ridge, there seemed to plenty of time to get to Moncton to deliver her third child.

But Hicks said they couldn’t see anything as her mother drove slowly along the Trans-Canada Highway at about 8 a.m.

It soon became apparent the baby was in more of a hurry than the driver.

Ashley Hicks said her water broke just outside the city and the baby boy was born moments later.

"She was saying, ‘Do you want to pull over?’ and I said, ‘He’s in my pants," Hicks said from her hospital bed. "I still had my pajamas on and he had already come out.

"He was so good. He came out and cried for like two seconds and then he just cuddled and was so content."

Ashley’s previous labours – Raine has an older sister and brother – each lasted for numerous hours.

"But this one just didn’t want to wait," said Crystal Hicks, the baby’s grandmother.

"I tried," Ashley interjected. "They were saying, ‘Hold it!’ I said, ‘I’m trying!’ And then that was it."

The baby’s father called 911 and firefighters and two ambulances were quickly able to find the car parked next to the snow-covered highway.

"When our firefighters … arrived, the mother already had the baby in her arms. They clamped the cord and packed the placenta," said Don McCabe, the fire department’s deputy chief of operations.

"The firefighters were awesome – so kind and so calm," said Ashley. "They were trying to make little jokes because I’m laying there going, ‘Oh my God, I had a baby right here,’ and there’s no doctors or anything. I was scared."