MINDEMOYA—One of Manitoulin’s newest citizens was so eager to get here he could wait no longer, giving the nurses at the Mindemoya site of the Manitoulin Health Centre a surprise one August night—the first time a baby had been born at the hospital since 2003.
Skii Beboning of M’Chigeeng had been camping at the community’s park on the shores of Lake Mindemoya with her almost-two-year-old daughter Layla when she first felt the twinges of contraction.
“I thought it was just Braxton Hicks (the ‘false’ contractions),” Ms. Beboning told The Expositor.
After a swim and a campfire with Layla, they returned to their Lakeview apartment, but sleep was not in the cards for Ms. Beboning as the contractions worsened.
Ms. Beboning decided she had better make her way to the hospital and she and her grandmother set off for Little Current. “We only made it as far as the (M’Chigeeng) Health Centre,” she laughed. “We turned around and headed for Mindemoya.”
Ms. Beboning was admitted just after 1 am on August 13. The midwife was called, but before she could get to the hospital the baby was born at approximately 1:30 am, a boy weighing seven pounds and 12 ounces.
Ms. Beboning thanked the nurses and staff at the hospital for assisting with her surprise visit and the care she and her baby received.
With the low number of births on Manitoulin, obstetrics can’t be offered at both sites, “and you also have to have a program of supporting physicians who can do the deliveries,” outgoing MHC CEO Derek Graham told The Expositor, explaining the reasoning behind the lack of Mindemoya births in recent years. “Historically, there were physicians and nurses with experience in obstetrics at the Little Current site, and a long history of these services at that site, so that’s why it hasn’t been done for a long time in Mindemoya.”
“He went a couple of weeks without a name but we’ve got one now, Kaisom McGregor,” Ms. Beboning said of her new baby. “He’s gaining weight well—he’s almost 10 pounds now.”
Big sister Layla has taken well to her new role too. “She gives him kisses every morning as soon she gets up.”
