In typical Squamish style, the first Sea to Sky Corridor baby of 2017 was born with a midwife’s help at Squamish Hospital on New Year’s Day.
Baby boy Halen Alexander Hedberg came into the world at 6:43 a.m. on Jan. 1, weighing seven pounds eight ounces and measuring 51.5 centimetres after six hours of active labour for first-time mom Michelle Alexander, according to the family’s midwife Beth Ebers of Roots Community Midwives.
“We were totally surprised,” Alexander said of having the first baby of the year. Halen was almost two weeks overdue, she said.
“I am feeling fantastic,” she added.
Alexander and husband Hans-Erik Hedberg are Whistler residents who came down to meet Ebers for the birth after Alexander started to go into labour.
The drive down to Squamish in the midst of a snowy New Year’s Eve was hairy, Alexander recalled, but her husband stayed calm and they took their time.
“We were the only people on the road,” she said.
The couple set up at Executive Suites Hotel where they met up with Ebers and waited for labour to become more intense. When she was in active labour New Years morning, they made their way to the birthing tub at Squamish Hospital, Ebers said.
Halen has bright blue eyes and a tuft of blond hair, his mom said over the phone from the hospital, while he cooed in the background.
“He is pretty content,” Alexander said of her newborn son. “We are just hanging out and getting to know each other.”
While 21 per cent of births in the province are assisted by midwives, in Squamish, 30 per cent of the births at Squamish Hospital are assisted by midwives, according to the Midwives Association of B.C.
Alexander said there are plenty of advantages to having a midwife.
“It was really awesome to have a relationship with somebody over the pregnancy and then have them be there for you,” she said.
“It has been fantastic.”
Ebers will accompany the family back to Whistler and help them get settled.
Though she has helped deliver thousands of babies, Ebers is equally complimentary about the new mom.
“Michelle was very strong throughout the entire thing, really amazing,” Ebers said, adding the experience of helping a mom give birth never gets old.
“It is always beautiful and it is always exciting,” she said.
