Do-It-Yourself Baby Birth

There was aunique case of "baby on board" in Southern California over thr weekend.

The stork seemed to be calling on Maria Luisa Chavez and her husband, Jose Chavez, and they set out for a hospital in Harbor City.

Jose told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm that the trip in their 1989 Chevy Suburban was marked by a delay right off the bat.

"I was deciding if I should put gas in or not," he said. "I didn't know what to do. And I noticed that her pains were getting closer and closer. I go, 'We gotta go, we gotta go.'

"I thought the hospital (we were going to) was like about a mile down. I was just trying to get to a hospital. But I was going the wrong way the whole time. And while this is going on, she's telling me, 'The baby's gonna come out.' And I'm telling her, 'No, no, hold it, hold it.' "

But by then, recalled Maria, she was in full labor.

"I just figured, 'Just push, and get her out, or else something else is going to happen. So, that's what I did. I pushed, and her head popped out. Jose told me, 'Hold her.' And I said, 'I can't hold her, it hurts.'

"So, that's when I reached down and I grabbed her shoulders and I pulled her out myself because I thought, you know, if she doesn't come out, it's going to be -- it hurts. So I pulled her out and I put her on my chest, and I told Jose he has to pull over."

Jose says his mind was spinning: "I didn't know what to do, to pull over, to stop, what. I was on the phone with the 911. I didn't know what to do. I was panicking really bad. I tried to maintain, you know, because I was driving. I was driving really slow, about 20 miles an hour, stop and go, stop and go. Eventually, the 911 lady told me, 'Just told. We want the ambulance. So I stopped."

All went well, and the baby, Jessie Danielle, was resting on her mother's chest by the time paramedics arrived. They cut Jessie's umbilical chord, gave her oxygen, and took the family to the hospital, though not the one they were originally headed to.

Maria and Jessie were released from the hospital Monday, and are doing well.