Nine months pregnant, Jose Annibel of Omaha got in her car on August 26th and travelled over 1,000 miles to New Orleans, LA. There, she will be in the water birth capital of the United States, ready to give birth to her second child, Isaac. Exactly seven years ago Jose was pregnant with her daughter, Katrina. She was packed and ready to head down to New Orleans for the birth, when her flight was cancelled.

“I was standing right there, in the airport, ready to take off,” said Jose. But her plane never left and little Katrina was born at the Alegent Health center.

“I never wanted my kids to come into this world like this,” Jose told the nurse after a flawless birth. “It’s such a shock to pop straight out into the air.”

Not about to let her son go through the same agony Katrina had gone through, she got set up to drive the entire trip. Monday morning while Jose was sleeping, her water broke. She headed for the car without a moment to spare. “She left in quite a rush”, her husband said, “before all the good spots were taken”.

The cost of water birth doesn’t come cheap, though. The Annibel’s spent close to $115 million preparing for Isaac to show up, and are ready to spend much more as Isaac makes his way back through Louisiana.