Lewisporte woman marks one year since giving birth in kitchen
‘The strength that Nancy has is just incredible’
This giving-birth-on-the-kitchen-floor story, with all its ridiculous and hilarious twists, has a distinctive pandemic flavour.
This week, reliving the moment almost a year later, the Cameron family was reunited with the paramedic and medical communication supervisor in an ambulance bay in Dartmouth, N.S. Gifts were exchanged and there was a lot of laughter as they remembered everything that happened inside of 42 memorable minutes.
A SUDDEN PAIN
On April 29, 2020, Nancy Cameron, with less than a week left until her due date, was watching her two-yearold son Lauchlin in their north-end Halifax home as her husband, Steve, went downstairs to take a video conference call for work. But just as Steve closed the door downstairs, a contraction slammed through her.
“It was like full steam ahead and I dropped to my hands and knees and was working through it,” recalled Nancy, a Newfoundlander who grew up in Lewisporte and moved to Nova Scotia about a decade ago.
She crawled over to the living room above where Steve was on a call and started banging on the floor. Problem is, Lauchlin picked that moment to play with his motorized four-wheeler. Nancy started crawling down the stairs but she didn’t make it before screaming with another contraction, jolting Steve out of his call.
“He’s like ‘go time?’ and I’m like ‘yup, go time.’”
GETTING AN EYEFUL
Just as Nancy called her midwife, her water broke. Meanwhile, Steve was on the phone with 911.
“They’re getting him to cut shoelaces out of his sneakers just in case he has to cut the umbilical cord.”
On her hands and knees yelling through contractions, Nancy heard a knock at the door: A courier was waiting with a package.
“I remember (thinking) ‘you’ve GOT to be joking me.’”
Weeks prior, her feet bloated and sore from pregnancy, she ordered shoes online and was waiting desperately for their arrival (she ended up returning them).
“You can see me from the front door, just the way our hallway went, and I can just imagine (the courier’s reaction), although I’m sure he’s seen it all.”
HORSEY RIDES AND A HELPFUL NEIGHBOUR
Chaos is great entertainment for a two-year-old. As Nancy was crawling on cushions on the floor, Lauchlin thought she was up for horsey rides.
“He’s trying to get on the top of my back but I’m also screaming during the contraction and also trying to get Steve’s attention to get him off of me. It was something out of the Lampoon Family birth.”
Then Steve noticed a neighbour, who happens to be taking her residency in anesthesia, was out walking with her dog and daughters.
“Steve opens up the door and yells ‘Steph! I need you!’”
Stephanie Power said she studied childbirth in medical school and did an obstetrical rotation.
“I was like ‘Steve, we need towels, all the towels.’ I was starting to think of what to do with what I had, which wasn’t much,” Power said.
Power took over and had Nancy settled in between the dining room and kitchen, half on the laminate floor, half on the tile.
Nancy said the whole time Lauchlin was in her line of sight. “And in between the craziest contractions I would look up, talk to him, tell him how much I loved him. I gained so much strength through him … it was a pretty entertaining 42 minutes for him.”
HOW ABOUT A SNACK WITH THE SHOW?
An enormous sense of relief washed through the house when the ambulance arrived and Amanda and Suzanne Grant, two paramedics wearing head to toe PPE, walked in.
Nancy was answering questions and working through contractions, with Steve supporting her back, when Lauchlan demanded a “la-la.” Translation: banana.
Without missing a beat, Power snatched a banana and chucked it at the two-yearold. Mid-labour, Nancy yelled out that he can’t open it himself.
“So (Grant) went over by him and opened it up for him,” Nancy said.
The paramedics were only there about 10 minutes when baby Isaac made his dramatic entrance. While recovering minutes after, Steve took a picture of Amanda and Power, with Lauchlin in the background eating a banana.
Power tried to describe what she was thinking as that photo was snapped.
“I was thinking the baby is safe, Nancy is safe, everyone is OK, and just relief that the paramedic had made it. I do think I could have done it, but I’m glad she was there,” Power said.
“The strength that Nancy has is just incredible and it shows just how much we’re capable of as women … it was very real and raw.”
REUNION
“Sorry if I had any bad language,” was one of the first things Steve said on Tuesday to Ahmed Jamshidi, who took the 911 call that day.
Jamshidi said he recently replayed the audio from that call and assured Steve he did just fine. “You were super cool and super calm,” he said.
Luckily the call didn’t take that long (about seven minutes) because an ambulance happened to be mobile in the area.
Both Amanda (who didn’t want her last name published) and Jamshidi said it felt good to meet the family on Tuesday. Most calls are not accompanied with laughter or closure.
“It’s good to actually see people that you’ve helped,” he said.
For Amanda, this was the third baby she delivered, but the first on a kitchen floor.
“It was definitely unique,” she said. “It’s the first time I’ve walked in and there were so many things going on. … It seemed surreal at a few points, but the focus was baby is coming and this is what needs to happen.
“We’re usually called when people are having a very bad day … to be able to do something like this, it’s always a rewarding day.”