Mom Gives Birth, Dad Delivers Baby Girl On I-94 In Woodbury

WOODBURY, MN — A Wisconsin mother gave birth late Sunday night on an Interstate 94 off-ramp in Woodbury, with dad delivering the healthy baby girl in their SUV.

Baily Bieniek-Phelps said she woke up on Sunday morning with a few small contractions and started to track them, knowing “I have babies fast.”

Her contractions were occurring about 10-15 minutes apart by 9 p.m. Sunday, and about two hours later, Bieniek-Phelps’ water broke.

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Bieniek-Phelps and her husband, Tim, raced to get to the Mother Baby Center in St. Paul.

The hospital is about 45 minutes from their home in New Richmond, Wisconsin, but they only made it about three-quarters of the way there before being forced to pull over, as first reported by the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.

“My contractions still weren’t crazy but the ones I did have were definitely strong,” Bieniek-Phelps wrote on Facebook about the drive to the hospital. “As we were going down 94 in Woodbury contraction #5 hit and I knew at that moment this was going to be a birth we would never forget!”

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Bieniek-Phelps said Tim pulled their SUV to the side of the I-94 westbound off-ramp for Radio Drive and Inwood Avenue.

“His daddy mode kicked in and he got us off of the highway,” she wrote. “He flew out of the driver seat (and) ran to my side of the car. As he helped pull my pants off he could see all of Ariel’s head was out.”

Tim “didn’t think twice” and told his wife to “take a deep breath and push!” Bieniek-Phelp wrote.

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Ariel Olive Marie Bieniek-Phelps was born at 11:40 p.m. Sunday in her parents’ SUV, weighing 6 pounds and 15 ounces, her mom said. She has four siblings: Remington, Wesson, December and Benjamin.

“If it wasn’t for (Tim) being such an amazing husband, partner, daddy, and support system I’m not sure I would have been able to do it!” she wrote on Facebook. “He was such a champ and didn’t think twice about making sure his baby girl got here safely and that I was okay.”

Bieniek-Phelps told Patch on Tuesday that she and Tim “keep replaying the whole thing out and talking about how crazy it was.”

She said the experience taught them that “we can fly by the seat of our pants and work together instead of panicking.”

“We didn’t know the true strength of ourselves or one another till this moment,” she said.

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