Chicago couple’s baby born in vehicle on Michigan Avenue

CHICAGO (WGN) – Parents Jasmine Kwong and Ashwin Avasarala are resting at home with their newborn baby girl Aira after being discharged from Prentiss Women’s Hospital at Northwestern.

However, that’s not where Aira was born.

“We catch ourselves just shaking our head in disbelief or lookin g at or just laughing out loud because it’s just absolutely unbelievable,” Avasarala said.

At around 8:30 a.m. Monday, the couple left their South Loop home to drive to the hospital as Kwong started experiencing contractions that kept on getting worse.

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“Maybe around five in the morning, I started having cramps that were bad enough that they woke me up,” Kwong said. “Baby just could not wait. I started feeling like something was coming for real this time, so by the time that we just crossed the bridge, I was like pulling my pants down.”

Avasarala stopped the car on Michigan Avenue near Tribune Tower.

“My right foot was still on the pedal, on the brake, and I reached over and pulled the baby out, put her in her lap, put the car in park, turned on hazards, call 911,” he recalled.

Paramedics arrived quickly and took Kwong and Aira to the hospital.

“They asked, ‘Is the baby breathing?’ I said yes. [They said], ‘Don’t worry. We got it from here,’” Avasarala said. “They clamped, cleaned, wrapped the baby, suctioned her foods out.”

Aira spent the day in the NICU with oxygen support and then went home with her parents and big sister, Jade.

(Photo: Jasmine Kwong and Ashwin Avasarala)

“I think we’re just incredibly lucky, and I mean what a story to tell!” Avasarala said.

It’s a story they plan to share with Aira as she grows up.

“I’m looking forward to bringing her to the location actually. Yeah, it’s like, ‘You were born right here.’ Mag mile, very Chicago story. Can’t make this up,” Kwong said.

“It doesn’t get more Chicago than Michigan Avenue, Tribune Tower, and we both also met in business school at Chicago Booth in the downtown campus at Gleecher, which is basically right behind Tribune Tower. So we’re going to tell her she could not wait to see where we met,” Avasarala added.

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