When Elaine Tuit gave birth to her first daughter, she was in labour for 22 hours.
Tuit delivered her second daughter, the first born in Victoria in 2018, a little more quickly.
Hallie Tuit was born on Jan. 1 not long after her mother first started experiencing contractions. Unable to get to a hospital in time, she had to give birth on her laundry room floor.
Elaine and her husband, Rob, were asleep before midnight on New Year’s Eve when she started experiencing minor contractions around 1 a.m.
She went downstairs so her husband and daughter could get some rest in case a long labour was in the cards.
The contractions started getting more intense and Elaine told Rob to call her mother over to look after their daughter.
“Stuff just steamrolled from there,” Elaine said. “My water broke and then Rob came downstairs and called the doctor.”
The doctor told Rob to call an ambulance.
Rob works as a firefighter so he has experience working in stressful medical situations. Still, he admits things were hectic.
“I was kind of running around like a chicken with his head cut off, trying to corral a two-year-old, getting towels and blankets… and a phone pinned to my shoulder.”
An ambulance was on its way, but Hallie didn’t want to waste any time.
“I pushed twice and lay down on the laundry room floor and pushed again and she was born,” Elaine said.
Hallie was born just before 5 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
After the birth, the Tuits’ oldest daughter handed Rob one of his running shoes, so he could take a shoelace to tie the umbilical cord.
“It was a family affair,” Emily said.
An ambulance arrived about five to 10 minutes after the birth and took mother and daughter to hospital, where both are doing well.
Hallie’s due date was Dec. 27 so the Tuits thought they might have a Christmas baby. Instead, she arrived five days late on Jan. 1 and became Victoria’s New Year’s baby.
“She wanted to make a grand entrance,” Elaine said.
— With files from Geoff Hastings