Long distance labour pains: In rural Alberta, giving birth can mean a road trip
CBC
Nicole Gauthier didn't expect she would be in an ambulance when she was in labour last fall with her first child.
The paramedic had planned for a home birth.
But when her daughter Emery was born, Gauthier's plan changed.
Gauthier lives in Plamondon, a small hamlet 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
Her local hospital in Lac La Biche, 30 km southeast of Plamondon, hasn't had a doctor with anesthesia capabilities since May 2022. Staff are unable to provide epidural anesthesia or support high-risk deliveries.
"I got pregnant in February," said Gauthier. "We were hoping that by October — by my due date — we'd have hospital facilities available, so it wouldn't even be in question, but that was not the case."
Doctors told Gauthier the birth was expected to be low-risk, so she hired a midwife with a clinic within minutes from Gauthier's home, an acreage outside the hamlet of Plamondon.
But when she went into labour on Oct. 10, Gauthier's midwife told her the baby was breech. Emery's feet were folded up to her head. That hadn't been revealed in an earlier ultrasound.
She was still at home with her midwife so she had no choice but to be taken by ambulance two hours to Cold Lake, the closest hospital with an operating room.
Both Bonnyville and St. Paul have hospitals closer to Gauthier's home, but neither had enough staff to provide surgery at the time. Several hospitals in northeastern Alberta have had extended obstetrics closures in the last year.
En route, her midwife found she had dilated to 10 centimetres.
"I remember looking at my midwife asking her how far we were," Gauthier said. "She told me we were 30 minutes out. And I looked at her and I said, 'I don't know if I have 30 minutes.'"
Once she arrived at the hospital, Gauthier learned her baby's hips were stuck in her pelvis. Doctors immediately performed a caesarean section.
"I was actually able to see in the reflection of the lights during the C-section when they pulled her out," Gauthier said of Emery. "She was crying right away. She picked up right away. She did really, really well."
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