All babies deserve a cheer, but some arrivals are worthy of special mention.
We're talking about babies born under extraordinary, unusual or surprising circumstances, sometimes to parents who weren't even expecting them.
In recent months, one infant surprised his unsuspecting parents in a "cryptic" pregnancy, a 10-year-old helped her mom give birth at home, and a few babies couldn't wait until their due dates to make surprise entries in unexpected places.
Here are 12 of the most unusual and inspiring birth stories of 2022.
1. A college student graduated and gave birth — on the same day
When pregnant Dillard University student Jada Sayles' learned that her May 14 graduation ceremony would be taking place on her due date, she didn't take the coincidence too seriously — until her contractions.
Before the criminal justice major headed to Ochsner Baptist Medical Center, she packed her cap and gown, which came in handy when Sayles delivered her son Easton.
Sayles missed her graduation ceremony, but former university president Walter Kimbrough drove the hospital to perform a mock ceremony in her recovery room.
"Congratulations. You may approach the bed and receive your degree,” Kimbrough said in a video of the ceremony.
Sayles, 22, tells TODAY.com that her special day was "surreal."
"I remember being so worried and sad because I wasn’t able to walk across the stage and be acknowledged by my university, only to be acknowledged by millions of people across the world," she says. "It’s amazing, I’m so proud of myself."
Sayles recently accepted a job offer as a care coordinator for former criminal offenders in Texas. Next spring, she will attend Tulane University online to receive her master of public administration.
Easton, now 7 months, is the "happiest" baby, Sayles says. "He’s always laughing and smiling," she says. "He can sit up now and he’s starting to crawl, although it’s backwards! He is my best friend."
2. A mom delivered her own baby on the side of the road — with her five other kids in the car
Kentucky mom Heather Skaats was driving with her five children when labor started three weeks early.
“I was having light contractions before we left, so I figured I had time to run an errand,” Skaats told TODAY.com in May.
Eventually, Skaats was forced to stop and deliver her baby on the side of the road — not the home water birth she had envisioned.
"I pulled over — assured the kids that everything was OK — and then I grabbed my phone and got out of the van," Skaats said.
She squatted down before her water broke.
"I put my hand down there and his head started coming out with his body,” she said. "I didn’t even have to push. It was so quick. I was on the phone with my husband, Nick, and 20 seconds later, I was like, 'He’s here!'"
The baby was still attached to the placenta inside her body, so Skaats wrapped him in a blanket and held him close while she drove home.
"I think the kids were in shock," she said. "They were pretty quiet."
Skaats met her midwife at home, where she delivered the placenta.
"I think having home births in the past sort of taught me to trust my body,” Skaats said. "Knowing the process really helped.”
3. A teenage lifeguard helped a mother in labor at a YMCA pool
Natalie Lucas, a teen lifeguard in Colorado, had a chaotic day at work in July when a laboring mom gave birth on the pool deck.
"I’ve always seen childbirth in movies and the TV shows, but never the real thing. It was definitely eye-opening,” Lucas told TODAY.com in August.
Pregnant YMCA member Tessa Rider and her husband, Matthew Jones, were at the pool that morning. Rider was floating with a pool noodle when the baby decided to come.
"She looks at me and says, 'We need to go,'" Jones said. “Tessa has barely made it out of the pool, she’s like two, three steps from the rail. She’s on all fours and she’s visibly in pain and also in the middle of the contraction.”
Rider began “crawling out of the pool," according to Lucas, and it was clear that birth was imminent.
Lucas told TODAY.com that her adrenaline kicked in.
“I start ... trying to support her and make sure she’s comfortable,” the lifeguard said.
Rider gave birth to baby boy Tobin on the pool deck.
"There’s a funny picture of me sitting back-to-back with her so she could put her weight on me to support her and give her some relaxation and calm,” Lucas told TODAY.com. “I was trying to help in any way I can."
4. A 10-year-old girl helped deliver her mom's baby
Fourth grader Miracle Moore called 911 and helped her mother give birth when she went into labor at home in Jennings, Missouri.
"Hi, I think my mom is in labor," Miracle told 911 dispatcher Scott Stranghoener.
Miracle communicated Stranghoener's instructions to her mom, Viola Fair: “Don’t sit on the toilet” and “Mama, they said lay on your back in the center of the bed or on the floor.”
She grabbed towels for the birth and unlocked the door so emergency responders could enter the home.
When Miracle's little sister Jayla entered the world, she wiped off her mouth and nose and wrapped her in a blanket.
“She was really helpful,” Fair told NBC news affiliate KSDK of Miracle's efforts. “I am very thankful.”
5. A baby was born in a hospital elevator on Mother's Day
A pregnant woman in Texas didn't make it to the delivery room, instead giving birth in a hospital elevator.
On Mother's Day (May 8), Betzabeth Perez and her partner, Adolfo Soto, rushed to Medical City Dallas when her labor started. Security guard Eli Davila greeted the couple and instructed them to take the elevator to the maternity ward.
The pain, however, was "intense," Perez told NBC News Now, and the baby couldn't wait. While Soto found parking, Perez was helped into a wheelchair and into the hospital.
"I start to push her in the elevator and I looked down and I saw that the baby was crowning and it was ready to come out," Davila told NBC News Now.
A hospital security camera showed two people entering the elevator and three people exiting, joined by baby Mia.
“Eli’s quick assessment and willingness to help a patient in need takes ‘other duties as assigned’ to a new level and speaks to our colleague’s commitment to delivering excellent care,” Jay DeVenny, chief executive officer at Medical City Children’s Hospital and Medical City Women’s Hospital Dallas, said in a statement shared by NBC Dallas Fort Worth.
"Thank you, thank you for everything," Perez told Davila in the NBC News Now interview.
"I'm very happy that I'm part of Mia's life now," said Davila, "and hopefully for a long time."
6. A mom gave birth on a plane mid-air
On a January redeye flight from Denver to Orlando, sleeping passenger Shakeria Martin, who was 37 weeks pregnant, awoke with contractions. Her first thought:
“This cannot be, there’s no way I could just have this baby on the plane," Martin told TODAY’s Sam Brock.
The Frontier Airlines flight crew guided Martin into the restroom, while flight attendant Diana Giraldo called for an emergency medical kit and removed her sweater to offer as a baby blanket. When Martin's water broke as she hovered over the toilet, Giraldo knelt and caught the newborn with her bare hands.
"She wasn't responsive and was turned blueish," Giraldo tells TODAY.com.
She bent the newborn face down over her knee at a slight incline, then rubbed and delivered light blows to the baby's back, before turning her over and switching to chest compressions, while Martin held an oxygen mask over her daughter’s face.
Giraldo tells TODAY.com that flight attendants are trained in infant CPR, but "there is no protocol for delivering a baby ourselves. I did what I could with the resources I had available, within the parameters of my training and personal reasoning."
While the pilot performed an emergency landing at Pensacola International Airport in Florida, a nurse helped Martin deliver the placenta.
In a follow-up interview, Martin, whose other children are 9, 7 and 2, tells TODAY.com that she's grateful to the flight crew for assisting in the birth of now 11-month-old daughter Jadalyne Sky (named for her birth place, of course).
Surprisingly, most passengers slept through the birth, says Martin, although they applauded the pair as they were escorted off the plane in a wheelchair. "It was like a scene from a movie," Martin says.
7. A 46-year-old woman beat the odds and gave birth to identical triplets
Utah parents Audrey and Tyler Tiberius wanted more children, but at 41, Audrey was told by doctors that she had a 10% chance of conceiving using in vitro fertilization (IVF). Three rounds of IVF had already failed.
Then, when Audrey was 46, she got pregnant naturally — with identical triplets. In March, "miracle" babies Sky, River and Bay were born, delivered six weeks early via emergency C-section.
"Most experts put the odds of identical triplets at one in 200 million births,” Audrey, now 47, told TODAY.com in September. "I talked to a statistician and apparently the odds of a 45-year-old having identical triplets are one in 20 billion."
The four older Tiberius children — Marcus, 13, James, 11, Christian, 9, and Max, 7 — love their three baby brothers "like crazy," Audrey tells TODAY.com.
"The boys are great helpers, heating bottles, changing diapers, playing with the babies and making them laugh," she says. "It warms my heart to see all the love and pure joy that has poured into our family since the triplets arrived. They are such a gift."
"Seven sons still feels surreal," she adds. "Like all worthwhile things in life, it’s hard and wonderful raising kids. I’m convinced that big families are the world’s best kept secret. Motherhood is toughest job you’ll ever love."
8. An obstetrician gave birth inside a car — and it was caught on camera
Dr. Gabriela Correia, an obstetrician in Brazil, gave birth in a car at a gas station.
An Oct. 24 Instagram video shows Correia giving birth (warning: if you don't wish to see a woman giving birth, please don't click this link), with her husband Gilberto Godoy, doula Joana Nunes, obstetrician-gynecologist Larissa Gomes and photographer Deborah Ghelman.
"There was no fear, only joy,” Ghelman told TODAY.com in translated Portuguese in October, adding, “everyone was well prepared.”
Correia told local news outlet globo that she and her husband didn't know the baby's sex until their son Artur was born. He joined their older son, Dante.
“Everyone involved in the birth had been with me through difficult times. I went through the loss of my first child, and it was very painful,” Correia told globo. “They were with me and supported me during that process. So, it’s a long journey I’ve had with them.”
In a follow-up interview, Ghelman tells TODAY.com that as a photographer, she's never experienced anything like what happened that day.
"Births happen every day in unusual places," she says. "I believe that what most touches people in this story is the tranquility of those involved. It is a life that is happening naturally, with balanced and prepared people. There is reason to enjoy the moment and see life happen."
9. Twin siblings were born minutes apart in two different years
Fraternal twins Aylin and Alfredo Trujillo were born 15 minutes apart — in 2021 and 2022.
Fatima Madrigal and Robert Trujillo welcomed their babies at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, California. Alfredo Antonio arrived at 11:45 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2021, and Aylin Yolanda was born at midnight on Jan. 1, 2022.
“It caught me by surprise,” mom Fatima Madrigal told TODAY.com in January. “I was due January 16.”
As the hospital posted on Facebook, "Twins with different birthdays are rare, and some estimate the chance of twins being born in different years as one in 2 million."
Dr. Ana Abril Arias, a family doctor at Natividad Medical Group and a member of the delivery team, told TODAY.com that the staff had joked about the possibility of the twins being born in different years.
"When the baby boy delivered, we waited because these babies were in separate bags,” she said. “Baby girl was higher, so we waited for her to come down a little. We broke the bag of water and let the baby decide when she can safely come out.”
10. A grandmother gave birth to her son and daughter-in-law's baby
A 56-year-old grandmother who was a gestational carrier for her son and daughter-in-law gave birth to a healthy baby.
In November, Nancy Hauck delivered baby girl Hannah for her son, Jeff, and his wife, Cambria. Cambria was not able to carry a pregnancy when she developed placenta increta after their second set of twins were born and she had a hysterectomy.
The couple still had unused embryos from fertility treatments.
“I could just feel this calling to offer to carry for them,” Nancy told TODAY.com in September.
Cambria was on board with the idea.
"When Nancy came to us, I know most people would probably be like, 'Oh my gosh, that’s crazy,' but it didn’t feel like that," she told TODAY.com. "There was just so much peace around the whole conversation and around the whole experience."
Doctors approved Nancy for pregnancy and in November, Hannah was born. On Instagram, Cambria praised her mother-in-law for being "amazing in every way."
"Hannah is doing amazing," Cambria tells TODAY.com. "She's perfect and sweet. We are so grateful she’s here and feel so blessed to have her in our family."
Nancy, who calls Hannah "Sweet Little Love," says carrying her "will always be a treasured miracle to me and in our family," adding, "I would have done this for any of my grandchildren."
11. A woman gave birth hours after learning she was pregnant
Illinois foster parents experienced the shock of learning they were expecting — and the baby would be arriving within hours.
Kelsie Garlic and his wife, Nicci, had tried unsuccessfully to have biological children for eight years.
Nicci went to urgent care assuming she had a kidney stone or appendicitis. There, she learned she was 34 weeks pregnant.
The couple didn't know about the pregnancy because Nicci hadn't gotten her period in years and didn't gain weight.
“Against all the odds, this miracle happened,” Kelsie told TODAY.com in February. “I was overwhelmed.”
As TODAY.com previously reported, "cryptic pregnancies," in which a person isn't aware they are pregnant for most or all of a pregnancy, are rare and high-risk. Their son Charlie was born prematurely.
"As soon as I heard his little cry I knew everything would be OK," Kelsie told TODAY.com. "The nurses brought him over to me for a second, and he looked up at me with these huge eyes. That was one of the best moments of my life."
Kelsie said their young foster children were delighted about their new brother, saying, "It’s kind of a fight over who gets to hold him."
12. A doctor delivered a baby during Hurricane Fiona
Dr. Zaskia Rodriguez, an OB-GYN in Ponce, Puerto Rico, continued working when Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico, even delivering a baby.
In September, when the storm hit land, Rodriguez got a phone call from a pregnant patient.
“She said she was in pain since 7 a.m., and was having bleeding and spotting,” Rodriguez told TODAY.com. “I told her she needed to go to the hospital.”
Amid the storm, Rodriguez drove to meet her patient at the hospital.
“Everything was dark — there were no lights; no electricity,” she said. “It was raining and windy — I was scared.”
After five hours, Rodriguez’s patient welcomed a baby girl. “It was a beautiful delivery,” she said.
"She asked, 'How can I take care of my baby with no electricity or running water?'" Rodriguez said. “I think that’s the worst part — when they go home and they face all the limitations.”
Rodriguez's clinic didn't have power or running water; at one point, while treating a patient, her generator ran out of gas. She also didn't have power in her own home.
In a follow-up interview, Rodriguez tells TODAY.com that after two weeks, electricity and water were restored to her clinic, along with a fully functioning generator. Rodriguez's home now has power as well.
"My patients are doing well," she says. "A couple of them lost their homes and their baby’s clothing as a result of the storm, but we as a community are helping them to get back to normal."
The medical community is still struggling, she says.
"We are overwhelmed with patients," she says. "It's a sad reality, but we are taking care of our patients with all the limitations we face."
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