Mom gives birth to baby girl in pickup truck in NJ

VOORHEES, N.J. -- Little Portia Melchoirre wasn't due until Jan. 23, but she just couldn't wait to make her debut into the world.

Her mom, Keshia, unexpectedly went into labor early Tuesday morning. That's when Keisha and her husband, Steve, jumped in their truck and headed to the hospital - fast.

"It went from just me breathing hard to screaming in the car. I could feel her coming out," said Keshia Melchoirre.

"I can see the look in her face and hear her desperation that, you know, this baby is coming now," said Steve Melchoirre.

The Southampton couple sped through Medford and Marlton on their way to Virtua Hospital in Voorhees.

They were almost there, but Portia wasn't waiting. And so without doctors, nurses or an epidural, Keshia delivered her own baby right in the front of their Ford pickup.

"I was able to pull her right up to my chest and I put her in my sweatshirt cause I didn't have a blanket or anything," said Keshia Melchoirre. "He's like do we have a boy or a girl? And I was like, 'Oh let me check.' It was just complete shock."

"She's holding the baby, who's 4 pounds, in the palm of her hand," said Steve Melchoirre.

Portia is 4 lbs. 12 oz. to be exact, and three-and-a-half weeks early. When they pulled up to the hospital a medical team rushed out and cut the umbilical cord in the truck.

When Portia's big sister, Penelope, was born, Keshia went through 10 or 12 hours of hard labor. This time around it seemed like 12 minutes.

"She's good, healthy. Thankful that she took a breath right away, and I didn't have to freak out in the car," said Keshia Melchoirre.

"The best thing in the world. I mean it's an absolute miracle," said said Steve Melchoirre. "She did everything. I was just the driver."

Steve is a small businessman and Keisha is a first-grade teacher in Hainesport. They're a growing family that now has quite a tale to tell.

Not many women deliver their own babies. Fewer still in the front of a pickup truck.