Photo Credit: Emily Morgan/AP via Yahoo News

A woman who unexpectedly gave birth on a cruise ship four months before her due date says the just a little over one pound baby boy was kept alive by wrapping him in towels and the help of medical staff until the ship reached port.

Emily Morgan, of Ogden, Utah, said that doctors didn’t expect little Haiden to live, but thanks to a pair of strong lungs, a makeshift incubator and an early arrival in Puerto Rico, he survived. He’s now receiving care at a neonatal intensive care unit in Miami.

The 28-year-old said her baby wasn’t due until December, but contractions began on August 31st during a seven-day cruise around the eastern Caribbean which she’d embarked on to celebrate her daughter’s third birthday, with her doctor’s approval. Up until the point where she went into labor, her pregnancy had been uneventful.

Emily told the Associated Press that she and her husband initially thought it might be false labor but called onboard medical staff when they saw blood. A doctor aboard the Royal Caribbean ship told her she couldn’t give birth because they were still 14 hours from the nearest port in Puerto Rico.

But holding back wasn’t an option, she explained, “I knew the baby was coming.”

After the delivery doctors initially told her she had miscarried and she should get some rest, she insisted on seeing the baby, and about 45 minutes later, medical staff told her that her son had survived, but that he wasn’t expected to live long. Haiden was delivered to her wrapped in towels wet from the birth.

According to Dr. Bradley Yoder, a baby born so early and so far from a hospital has a less than 10 percent chance of survival – he also added that he was quite surprised the baby made it.

Today, Haiden is said to be making good progress and is expected to be hospitalized until his December 19 due date.