Abigail Cain of Gray was so impatient to get to the hospital to give birth early Friday that she went out to the car in the frigid cold in shorts, a tank top and sweatshirt.

In between calls to inform her mother and other relatives of her condition, she even beeped the car horn when her husband did not emerge from their house as quickly as she would have liked.

But she discovered the baby was even more impatient.

“I walked around to the passenger seat and leaned in and suddenly had to push,” said Cain, 22.

Within seconds Cain felt the baby emerge, its head stuck in her shorts.

“I grabbed her and lifted her in shock,” said Cain, a second-time mother.

Advertisement

Her husband, Joseph Cain, came out to hear a baby crying. She bundled the infant in her sweatshirt and they hurried inside, where he tied off the umbilical cord with help via phone from emergency medical technicians.

The 7-pound, 5-ounce baby girl is named Danica AnnMarie Cain.

From her room at Mercy Hospital in Portland, Cain recounted the whirlwind delivery of her baby, who was doing well Saturday despite her arctic entry into the world in the family’s driveway on Egypt Road in Gray.

Cain said her labor was induced for the birth of her first child, son Tristan, 2, so she wasn’t exactly sure what to expect the second time around. She woke up around 3 a.m. Friday with contractions.

“But nothing regular. I figured it was a false alarm,” she said.

She said she stayed in bed for another 45 minutes.

Advertisement

Then she got up, walked around and read a book.

“All of a sudden I couldn’t concentrate on the book,” she said.

So she tried to call her mother, who lives in Vermont, and then the midwives at Mercy’s birthing center, leaving messages when she couldn’t get through. The contractions started to ramp up about 4:45 a.m.

“I woke up my husband and said, ‘We have got to go!’” Cain said.

Her husband brought their son to his parents, who live downstairs. When he returned, Cain threw him a shirt to get dressed.

“I told him, ‘We have got to go!’” she said.

Advertisement

She grabbed the keys and headed out to the driveway while her husband went for her bag. She said she was so hot, she didn’t put on a coat.

“I started the car, walked to the other side of the car, leaned in and honked the horn,” said Cain, who works at the Dollar Tree store in Gray.

After two pushes, her baby girl came out.

“My husband came around the corner with my bag and his face turned white.”

“I said: ‘I had the baby. I need towels and a blanket and you need to call 911,’” Cain said.

The new father, 27, who works at the Hannaford supermarket in Windham, said he was in shock.

Advertisement

“It was quite the adventure. I heard a baby crying when I walked out the front door and thought, ‘No, no, that is not right,’” he said.

Cain followed his wife in the ambulance to Mercy Hospital.

Mother and child were released from the hospital Saturday afternoon.

The new mother said Danica was born at 5:18 a.m., the time recorded on her cellphone as she tried to dial her mother before contractions forced her to hang up. The National Weather Service in Gray estimated the temperature around that time was minus 5.

Cain said she is relieved the baby came before they started out for the hospital, so they could quickly get out of the cold and into the warm house.

“Giving birth on the road could have been a recipe for disaster,” she said.

Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:

bquimby@pressherald.com


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.