Melissa Dunn, 30, said her daughter -- her third child -- wasn't due until May 31 but she went into labor early Tuesday and woke her husband to drive her to a maternity ward, WSVB-TV, Boston, reported Wednesday.

"I didn't realize I was in such hard labor and by the time I did, I said, 'I need to go right now,'" she said from her hospital room.

However, the 8-minute ride to Jordan Hospital in Plymouth turned out to be too long for the impatient baby.

"There really wasn't any time. I just did what I had to do," she said. "I just used a towel that I was sitting on and used that to catch her."

Dunn said doctors performed blood tests on newborn Grace Maria Dunn -- who weighed in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces -- because the umbilical chord wasn't immediately severed but the baby is expected to be fine, the television report said.

"It's definitely hitting me. Wow. I can't believe that really happened to me," she told WSVB.