Rush hour traffic in and around NYC is a bad place to be, but perhaps the worst place to be if you are in labor. Soukaina Elkarhat was six weeks away from her due date when she realized something was up and thought that it might be time -- go time. So she and her husband Abdel left their home in Lodi, New Jersey, to head over to Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, where they planned to have the baby.

Depending on traffic in the Holland Tunnel, the trip wouldn't take that long, but there was traffic and baby just didn't want to wait. Just as they got into the tunnel, the baby starting crowning. They made it through to the New York side and pulled over right by the Port Authority security booth for help. That's when things turned really scary for a minute.

Big news for those of you who wonder about pregnant nookie. You've heard that semen contains prostaglandin, right? Or that an orgasm can release it? Well, I guess they don't muster quite enough prostaglandin to trigger labor. Apparently, sex doesn't induce labor after all.

Researchers in Malaysia invited 1,100 women who were 35 to 38 weeks pregnant to, well, have at it with their baby-daddies. They told half to "have sex frequently." They gave no directions to the other half, only told them that while sex during pregnancy is safe the effects are unknown. And after all that whoopie, none of it seemed to make a difference.

Out of all the things that can potentially get labor going, I never would've considered "laughing" as a possible trigger. Yes, laughing, as in funny, ha ha ha, he he he.

Believe it or not, a woman in China, Ma Lusha, actually laughed herself into labor while taking in a comedy show in Beijing featuring a stand-up comedian named Guo Degang last Saturday night. When she suddenly felt the baby coming out, she was taken to the hospital, where she delivered a baby girl.

She was only 38 weeks along and wasn't the least bit concerned about delivering her baby early simply because she couldn't control her giggles. She said, "I love Guo's standup comedies very much. I never missed his shows. My doctor said my expected delivery date was several days later so I felt assured."

This story of a mom giving birth in her bathroom with only the assistance of her 6-year-old daughter is proof that there is power in love and being calm during labor. Of course, a fast delivery also helps. And a kid who watches medical shows.

That's exactly what happened when Kay Goodby, 28, of the UK went into labor in the middle of the night. Francesca, Kay's 6-year-old daughter, heard her mom screams when her water broke in the bathroom of their home. She came into the room and calmly starting talking her through the birth. Dad Michael went downstairs to call the paramedics, but Francesca was so effective as a midwife, baby was born before he came back upstairs. 

Nothing was going to keep Chicago mom-to-be Galicia Malone from voting this morning. Not even labor pains! She stopped by her local polling station this morning to cast her vote -- on the way to the hospital to give birth to her baby. Her water had already broken by the time she arrived at her voting station at 8:30 a.m.

Cook County Clerk David Orr was impressed. "If only all voters showed such determination to vote. My hat goes off to Galicia for not letting anything get in the way of voting. What a terrific example she is showing for the next generation, especially her new son or daughter." I'm impressed, too! But then -- is it really that crazy a thing to do while in labor?

If you've ever been in the Big Apple when the ball drops on December 31, you know the true meaning of the word "chaos." If you haven't, well, it's exactly the way it looks on TV -- except 100 times louder and crazier. That's why I was dying to see this episode of CafeMom Studios' Birth Stories: I Went into Labor on New Year's Eve in New York City! And, whoa. As a mom who almost gave birth to her first baby in a NYC taxi, I want to give THIS mom a big hug.

It seems that for many women, child birth is a very subjective thing. Stories range from women who claim they had "orgasmic" births to women who say they were miserable every second of their labor and never want to do it again. For me, the number one take away from my to labors was this: most times labor is what you imagine it will be. Your mind can make it horrible or great. It depends on what you believe it will be.

A Cafe Mom Studios Birth Story piece recently told Dania M's story. Her birth story is a wild one and really shows how the mind can dictate what labor is like and that there is no one, universal experience. Dania had done all the research she could to prepare for having a baby, but when she was induced, the experience was far different than she had imagined. See below:

Carson Daly and his girlfriend, Siri Pinter, are over-the-moon after the birth of their new baby girl, Etta Jones (cutest name ever), who made her entrance into the world yesterday. Carson announced their big news on his Facebook page, and since he's such a nice guy, he even referred to Siri as a "rockstar" for how she handled the baby's birth. (Aww!)

And considering Siri is a food blogger, I guess it's only fitting that on the day before she delivered, she tried eating a "maternity salad" to bring on labor. Well, obviously whatever the heck was in that salad worked like a charm, which made me curious about its labor-inducing ingredients.