I gave birth on the side of an NYC highway — my baby slid right out
She gave birth in a New York minute — and on the side of a New York City highway.
While zipping through traffic on the Jackie Robinson Parkway on Oct. 1, BelRaye Osborne, 39 weeks pregnant, knew her baby was coming faster than her husband, Tru, was driving.
After the expecting mommy felt the pangs of labor coming on strong, the pair began their journey from East New York to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical at 7:30 a.m.
The childhood sweethearts, who’ve been together for nearly a decade, were only 17 minutes into the journey into midtown Manhattan when they knew it was time.
With contractions striking every other minute and the acute pressure plaguing her body, the then-mom of two demanded they pull over their 2016 Mitsubishi onto the shoulder of the highway just before Exit 5 on Myrtle Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard.
It’s because baby No. 3 couldn’t wait.
“I was like, ‘Babe, he’s coming,’ ” BelRaye, 32, a certified life coach and high school language arts instructor told The Post. “Pull over, he is coming right now.”
“I said, ‘Well are you sure it’s not gas?’ ” recalled Tru, 33, a professional singer and music teacher with the New York City school system. “My wife yelled, ‘No! Feel my stomach.’
“When I touched her belly, I could feel my son’s feet pressing against her rib cage as if he was using her ribs as leverage to kick himself out,” he continued. “I said, ‘Oh no, we’re going to have this baby on this highway.’ ”
And that they did: Baby Temple was born on the shoulder of the parkway in a matter of five seconds.
“I let out one loud grunt and he slid right out,” she said.
‘He’s coming!’
Throughout the pregnancy, Tru joked that he’d be the one delivering their newest bundle of joy, despite their plans to welcome the tot with the support of a trained doula and medical professionals at New York-Presbyterian.
Although he had been present during the births of son Titan, 5, and daughter Thunder, 3, the playful papa had never actively participated in natality.
But upon pulling their car over to see the baby’s head crowning as BelRaye wailed in agony, a thunderstruck Tru quickly realized delivering a baby was no laughing matter.
“I opened the passenger door and my wife put one leg out of the car and grabbed onto the car handle for support,” said Tru — who’d coincidentally had a trunk full of 15 new towels, which he’d purchased two days prior for their household.
“I was holding the towels and looked up to see that the baby was crowning,” he said. “The top of his head was out … My wife said, ‘He’s coming!’ ”
While howling in excruciation, a momentary wave of worry washed over BelRaye.
“I remember thinking, ‘How’s this baby going to get out of me?’ ” she said, noting that doctors had feared that her growing fetus would be “too big” for natural birth.
“I had one foot in the car, one on the ground. I’m squatting on the side of the road,” she said, “and I’m like, ‘How is this going to happen?’ ”
‘Exit 5 — Woodhaven’
BelRaye welcomed her 8-pound-5-ounce son, Temple Westry Grant Archangel Osborne, after just five seconds of pushing.
“It was so fast,” she said. “But those few seconds we felt the sacred connection between God, ourselves and our baby.”
Rather than waiting on the roadside for an ambulance, the couple flagged down a police officer who escorted them to the hospital.
It wasn’t until after BelRaye and baby Temple — who was named in homage to a “safe space,” and whose birth certificate lists “Exit 5 — Woodhaven” as his place of birth — were admitted that she was able to calmly reflect on the wild ride.
“We just looked at each other and said, ‘Did that just happen?’ ” she laughed, remembering the ordeal as a “peacefully chaotic” experience.
“It wasn’t traumatic at all,” said BelRaye. “It was amazing. It was beautiful. All we had was each other and that’s all we needed.”
