![Paula D'Amore gave birth in the hospital car park.](/web/20161110053100im_/http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/k/2/0/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsjnn2.png/1478511817864.jpg)
Paula D'Amore was still on her way to hospital when her third baby decided it was time to arrive.
The mum didn't even make it inside the doors of the Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida, instead giving birth to daughter Daniella outside in the carpark.
But that didn't stop the hospital from charging Ms D'Amore and her partner more than a US$7000 'delivery room fee' seven months after the April birth.
Posting a Facebook Live video about the charge, Ms D'Amore said the fee was ridiculous considering her 'delivery room' consisted of a couple of sheets being held around her while her baby arrived.
"I give total credit to the nurse who suctioned Daniella when Joe delivered the head, the midwife who finished delivering Daniella," Ms D'Amore said.
"But to charge a roundabout charge for seven grand, I think is ridiculous. I wasn't admitted until after I delivered the placenta."
Ms D'Amore's discharge statement reads "delivery in car prior to arrival at hospital". However the hospital invoice sent to the family lists the "delivery room fee" as $7431.45, in addition to other hospital charges.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20161110053100im_/http://www.smh.com.au/cqstatic/gsk20h/bill.jpg)
When questioned about the charge, the hospital released a statement, which reads: "The services rendered were the result of a complex delivery due to a precipitous labour and delivery. Our Labour and Delivery Unit provided additional resources by sending three nurses and a nurse midwife to the hospital parking lot to assist the delivery of the baby."
Speaking to Scary Mommy, Ms D'Amore claimed the additional nurses sent to the carpark simply held up sheets around her.
"It was a spectacle. Everyone was there," she said. "I should have just stayed home and delivered her there."
"To me it was beautiful," Ms D'Amore told local news outlet Fox 31. "It didn't matter if it was in my house or in the car, or in the hospital. It didn't matter. I mean yes, charge me, but not $7000."
The unexpected delivery room fee came after a separate incident which resulted in baby Daniella spending time in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, which Ms D'Amore said was unnecessary.
"After being admitted the baby was taken to the nursery to be checked. The neonatologist ordered a blood culture on the baby," the mother explained to Scary Mommy.
Ms D'Amore claims the test was contaminated because the nurse did not clean Daniella before taking blood, "leading to a positive result causing her to be admitted to the NICU for 24hrs and receive five rounds of antibiotics."
"Bacteria that grew was staphylococcus hominis: a bacteria that is commonly found on human skin in the pubic region," Ms D'Amore told Scary Mommy.
Two subsequent tests were clear and Ms D'Amore and her partner were allowed to take baby Daniella home, but not before the couple was billed an additional US$4000 NICU charge.