Baby girl comes into the world in mom's minivan on the Northern State Parkway

Jennie and Sergio Giusto were rushing Tuesday night to North Shore University Hospital, where Jennie thought she was going to give birth to the couple’s second daughter.

But little Angelina Rose couldn't wait. As Sergio drove Jennie’s Honda Odyssey minivan on the Northern State Parkway, the pace of Jennie’s contractions quickened and Angelina’s head suddenly appeared. Less than a minute later, Sergio said, she was born.

“It’s a miracle, it’s crazy,” Jennie, a kindergarten teacher in Elmont, said as she sat with Angelina cradled in her arms in the couple’s East Meadow home. “It’s something out of a movie.”

The couple was at home watching television in bed when Jennie felt the first contraction. Their first daughter, Sophia, 4, was born in a hospital 12 hours after the initial contraction, so she didn’t panic. She telephoned her sister to come over to stay with Sophia and the couple prepared to go to the hospital.

By the time her sister arrived, the contractions “were happening faster and faster. I couldn’t even time them anymore,” said Jennie, 37.

Jennie and Sergio, a construction manager in Maspeth, Queens, got in the minivan. The hospital, in Manhasset, is just a 20-minute drive from home, so they expected to get there in time for the on-call OB-GYN to deliver Angelina.

But several miles into the trip, “I had a contraction where there was a big gush and I assumed my water broke,” Jennie said.

“I think she’s coming,” she told Sergio. “It’s going to happen.”

Jennie remembers Sergio, 37, repeatedly asking her if he should pull over or continue driving to the hospital, but she couldn’t talk.

“The next big contraction felt like a pop, like a tear, something major, and that’s when I said ‘I think she’s out, she’s coming,’ ” she said.

Sergio began slowing down as he moved his right hand toward her.

“I felt the head, and I knew I had to pull over,” he said.

“The next contraction I think she came out,” Jennie said.

Sergio pulled onto the grass off the Northern State between Glen Cove Road and the merge with the Long Island Expressway, quickly retrieving blankets from the back seat to cover the newborn Angelina.

When they got to the hospital, nurses ran out. One cut the umbilical cord while Jennie was still in the minivan. Several helped her onto a stretcher.

Angelina's entry into the world was nothing like that of her big sister Sophia, who was born with Pompe disease, a rare and often fatal genetic disorder that disables the heart and skeletal muscles. Although Sophia is doing well, Jennie and Sergio are both Pompe disease carriers. To spare Angelina from the disorder, they conceived her through in vitro fertilization and tested the embryo to ensure she had not inherited the disease.

“That was a huge story in and of itself,” Jennie said. “But she wanted something a little more. The little cherry on top was being delivered in mom’s minivan.”

By David Olson

david.olson@newsday.com@DavidOlson11

David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.