Edmonds mother gave birth en route to hospital

EDMONDS, Wash. — Jake and Caitlin Hitchner bought a new SUV in mid-December to tote around their growing family.

It turned out to be a delivery van.

Caitlin gave birth to their fourth baby, Boston, in the front seat as Jake drove down Interstate 5 to the hospital.

“We are those people who couldn’t make it to the hospital,” Caitlin said. “We had a baby in the freakin’ car.”

The couple were on a dark stretch of I-5 headed to Swedish First Hill Campus in Seattle from Edmonds shortly after midnight on Dec. 30.

Caitlin yelled at Jake to gun it.

“He’s like, ‘I don’t want to get pulled over,’” said Caitlin, 31. “I was like, ‘We need to get pulled over. We need help.’”

“I never have gotten a speeding ticket in my life,” said Jake, 40. He was already breaking the law doing 68 mph.

‘I know how this goes’

Jake was confident they’d make it to the hospital on time.

“This is our fourth kid. We’ve done this. I know how this goes,” he said.

All are boys, 5 and under. Both parents are elementary school teachers in the Mukilteo School District, so they know how to deal with kids who can’t wait, on and off the job.

Caitlin has 35,600 followers on TikTok with videos of her life as a teacher and a “boy mom.” She was too preoccupied to TikTok the freeway event the morning of Dec. 30.

Here’s how Caitlin announced the arrival of baby Boston in a group text to friends later that day:

“Contractions started at 11 pm, I waited about an hour to call but I knew something wasn’t right. The hospital said ‘get here now’ but we live 30 min away. I’m truly screaming at Jake to get in the car bc of the pain. We start driving and the contractions are literally taking over my body with no breaks.

“Get on I-5, we are at the Greenlake exit when I realize. … We won’t make it to the hospital. I’m screaming at Jake to pull over but he won’t. Map says we are still 12 min away from the hospital.

“I unbuckle, turn my body around, and push. I feel his head and scream to call 911. He does and 911 is on the line, he’s still driving when on the 2nd push Boston fully comes out. Jake finally pulls over while helping me catch him.

“His cord is wrapped around his neck so we freak out, get it undone and he cries. Ambulance and fire pull up and tend to us on the side of the road at the 50th St exit about 3 min after he’s born. And anyway. That’s the story of how I gave birth in the car at 12:56 am.”

And what a story.

“En route” is the box she checked on his birth certificate.

Rick Johnson, a spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol in King County, said this doesn’t happen often.

“In 33 years, I can remember this happening only a few times, but not that the baby is born before the fire department gets there,” Johnson said. “In my district, there are hospitals pretty close no matter where you live.”

Trooper Kelsey Harding is spokesperson for District 7, which covers Snohomish, Island, San Juan, Skagit and Whatcom counties.

“It’s not a common thing, by any means,” she said.

Harding could recall one incident in the last five years when a trooper delivered a baby by the roadside, but not any births in a moving car. In November 2018, a trooper calmly delivered a baby girl at 1:59 a.m. on the shoulder of I-5 south of Everett, where the parents had stopped for help.

Jake said the couple reflected on the birth on the drive home up I-5.

“I remembered her doing this death scream,” he said. “I’d never heard my wife scream like that before.”

Boston was due Jan. 5.

“You can’t stop a baby who wants to come out,” Caitlin said.

He weighed 8 pounds, 10 ounces.

“He was fully cooked,” she said.

The couple’s other sons are Jace, 5; Greyson, 3; and Kaid, almost 2.