Mariah Jackson never thought she would be delivering a baby on the side of a highway — but that’s exactly what happened on April 19, when her third child was born.
Jackson said baby Liam will likely hear the story about being delivered next to Trans-Canada Highway marker 242 for the rest of his life.
She and her partner, Fernando Gonzalez, live only seven minutes from the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville.
But they were required to travel to the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton — over an hour away — because labour and delivery services at their local hospital were closed that day.
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A woman who was diverted to Fredericton after labour service was suspended at the hospital in Waterville delivered her son on the side of the Trans-Canada Highway. The parents believe there should have been an alternative.
Although Jackson advised health-care providers before the birth that she usually labours quickly, she said there were no alternate plans or added support offered.
Liam is healthy now, but his parents are speaking out about the experience because it was stressful and scary — and they believe it shouldn’t have happened.
“I’m not a nurse, right? I’m a father. I was, I was not gonna let anything happen,
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