‘One for the record books:’ Rosthern paramedic braves winter storm on night of three births

Jacques Van Eeden said he doesn’t think a night like Monday in the Rosthern area has ever happened before.

In the midst of whiteout conditions, three pregnant women put in calls to paramedics for help with their deliveries.

Childbirth is a “natural” call to respond to, said Van Eeden, who is a care paramedic and operations manager for the Rosthern Ambulance Service. Generally, he said it’s not a nervewracking call to receive for experienced paramedics.

What is nervewracking, however, is getting a call in the middle of severe winter weather.

That’s the kind of night it was when Van Eeden and his wife, who is also a paramedic, were called out of bed to go take care of one of three women in labour in the Rosthern area.

He says their service doesn’t usually have three ambulances ready to go — usually one is a spare — but they had all three ambulances dispatched to women delivering their babies and needing transport to the hospital around the same time.

The ambulance attending the first call got stuck in the snow with the mother in the back giving birth. Van Eeden says they were able to make it to the hospital just in time for her to deliver there, thanks to the help of Harvey Britton with Harv’s Autobody and Towing.

“He just dropped everything right away and made his way to go help them,” Van Eeden said, adding Britton then accompanied the ambulance to the hospital to make sure they arrived safely.

After the second ambulance was dispatched, the third call of the night came in, and Van Eeden said they didn’t believe it at first.

“At that point, we were like, ‘No, this is not going to happen,’ ” he said.

They thought it might be the same call twice, but the lady was in a different area and they realized it truly was a third mom-to-be in labour and needing assistance.

She delivered in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital, just minutes after leaving her home.

Because she’d wanted a home birth originally but their midwife hadn’t been able to reach their home with the stormy conditions, Van Eeden said they returned her to her home after she and the baby were checked out by a doctor and given the all clear.

All three moms and their new babies are healthy, Van Eeden reported, and the paramedics visited the families the following day with gift baskets to celebrate their new arrivals.

“We risk our lives when we go out on the roads and we are also vulnerable. We can also get stuck in the snow, but in the end, we’ve managed to pull off a very spectacular night,” Van Eeden said.

With roads as bad as they were, Van Eeden said travel was not advised and huge snow drifts kept traffic slow but at a pace where they wouldn’t get stuck on the roads.

“They know anything can go wrong,” he said about his crew when attending any call in troublesome weather.

While ambulances are sturdy, the ultimate goal of any call, of course, is to reach the person who needs help and get them the best outcome possible.

“I have a lot of trust in my crew and I know their capabilities. I didn’t have any concern,” Van Eeden said.

Since Monday, Van Eeden said people have been sharing the story of that night and offering their congratulations to the team.

“It’s been such an overwhelming week with everybody getting in contact with us … It just boosts your morale up and makes us feel like we are appreciated. It’s one for the record books,” Van Eeden said with a laugh. “I don’t think this has ever happened anywhere else before.”