“I was laughing at him and some of his punchlines," said Ollie Mitchener of the Brooklyn cab driver who cheered her on as she gave birth.
It’s been about a month since an optimistic cab driver coached a Brooklyn mom through delivering her baby in the back of his car, and mom Ollie Mitchener is now confirming her newborn daughter is happy and healthy after the extraordinary ordeal.
“We’re doing really great,” Mitchener told InsideEdition.com. “It was an experience I’ll never forget. She’s not going to ever forget it.”
Mitchener, a mother of four, went viral last month after giving birth in a livery car. While the birth itself was shocking and unexpected, the video that captured by the interior dashcam and the driver’s hilarious commentary ended up going viral.
“We didn’t even notice until we watched the video,” Mitchener said of the driver’s one-liners. “We were cracking up ourselves. I was laughing at him and some of his punchlines.”
She explained that she never anticipated her baby would come so quickly. When she was pregnant with her last three, she was in labor for more than 24 hours. In fact, she said she was so unconcerned she had spent the day in the park with her kids after her labor started, and went home for a good night’s rest.
“About 3 a.m. I started feeling pain and I was like, ‘Wait. We have to go to the hospital. Boy, call a cab,’” she told her fiance, who was still groggy.
They instructed the driver to take them to a hospital 30 minutes away, and even though her contractions were coming quicker and quicker, she insisted they would make it.
Eventually, it became obvious that they wouldn’t.
“Something just didn’t feel right, I couldn’t close my legs anymore,” Mitchener said. “When I put my hand down there, I felt a head.”
Amid speeding to the hospital, the cab driver and her fiance reassured her, telling her to take deep breaths and stay calm, “and I’m like, ‘No, her head is in my hands,’” Mitchener said.
Even though she was the one giving birth, she said the only thing she could hope was for the cab driver to get them to the hospital without getting pulled over and for her fiancé to not pass out from the sight of blood.
“My adrenaline was going, so it wasn’t that painful,” she said.
Minutes later, baby Nyomi Ruby Hardy was crying in her arms.
“She was healthy, there were no complications and we came home in the regular two days,” Mitchener said.
Ultimately, she said they’re just thankful the cab driver was so happy to help.
“It was funny but it was inspirational too and helpful,” Mitchener said. “Any cab could have been like, ‘We’re not taking you,’ but he took us and he rode it out.”
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