Montreal police assisted with a little Christmas miracle early Thursday morning, helping a mother deliver her baby in the back seat of the family car.

Around 3 a.m., a man frantically waved down a police car with two officers inside at the corner of St. Laurent and Gouin Blvds. in the Ahunstic– Cartierville borough.

The man’s wife was in the “late stages of giving birth,” according to police spokesperson Cst. Jean-Pierre Brabant – the infant’s head had already made an appearance by the time the officers got to the car.

The two officers called for an ambulance and calmly helped coax the woman to push. Brabant said that police receive First Aid training, but are not specifically trained to assist in roadside births.

“It was more, I would say, an instinct reaction” on the part of the officers, he explained.

Minutes after the officers arrived at the scene, a little boy was born. He was eight weeks premature.

The officers followed the family – mom, dad, an older sibling and the newborn – as they were brought to Sacre Coeur hospital in an ambulance.

All are doing well, Brabant said.