Baby Madelyn Jane Ellsworth made quite an entrance into the world when she was born on New Year’s Day — taking her first breaths over the Halifax harbour, part-way across the MacKay Bridge.
Surprising her mom, Ashley Ellsworth, and two paramedics, Madelyn came earlier than her parents were expecting, and well before making it across from Dartmouth to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax.
Most mothers expect to deliver their newborns in a hospital, but this little one had a surprise up her sleeve when she decided to show up in the back of an ambulance.
Ellsworth and her husband were eating at Boston Pizza when she went into labour. They called for an ambulance, which met them in the parking lot.
Paramedic David Giles and his partner quickly put mom into the back of the ambulance and they began their journey across the harbour — but they didn’t get far.
“As we’re getting to the MacKay Bridge she took it up an octave, and I’m thinking it’s probably time, so I took a look and sure enough I could see the head,” Giles said.
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The rest of baby Madelyn quickly followed.
“I got my partner to pull over, we snapped the lights on, she jumped in back, by the time she got in back the baby was delivered,” Giles said.
“She decided that she needed to be born right then and there,” Ellsworth said.
The delivery was quick and smooth for both mom and baby, and the group were quickly on their way to the hospital with an extra passenger in tow.
“They were so wonderful, so wonderful, it was great to have good paramedics,” Ellsworth said.
“My mom’s a paramedic as well, she’s been a paramedic for over twenty-years and she’s never delivered a baby.”
Believe it or not, Madelyn isn’t the first baby Giles has delivered while spanned over water — he delivered another baby on a Halifax bridge 17 years ago.
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