Kaila Klassen hadn’t planned on having a home birth, but on Wednesday, baby Evvy had other ideas.
Paramedics and fire crews had to break into Klassen’s home on 124th Street in Maple Ridge after she suddenly went into labour, while alone. She gave birth on her bathroom floor.
“You read the baby books, and they have a chapter about what to do if you’re stuck in a snowstorm and you have to have a baby on your own, but you think it’ll never happen to me,” she said. “Well, it happened.”
Klassen was home alone, pregnant with her second child, when her contractions began around 1:40 p.m. on Wednesday. They intensified quickly. She sent a text message to her husband, Kevin Stumph, who was at work in Burnaby, and soon realized she wouldn’t be able to make it to Royal Columbian Hospital.
“I thought I’d have a couple hours, and I’d still be able to get to Ridge Meadows,” she said. “But after five minutes, I realized the baby was coming right now.”
In a cold sweat, and with the baby already beginning to crown, Klassen picked up the phone and called 911.
Paramedics were just five minutes away, but Klassen knew they wouldn’t get there in time.
The baby was coming now.
Klassen laid down on her bathroom floor, and shortly after 2 p.m., Evvy Stumph entered the world, a healthy eight pounds, two ounces.
“Once the baby was born, the battle was done,” Klassen said.
Emergency crews arrived within seconds, after having to break a window to get inside the locked house.
Paramedics cut the umbilical cord and warmed up towels in the couple’s dryer to bring Evvy’s body temperature up before taking mother and daughter to Ridge Meadows Hospital.
“Surprisingly, there were no complications,” Klassen said.
She is grateful to the paramedics and firemen who came to her aid.
“They were amazing,” she said. “They were trying to call everyone to let them know what happened. When they couldn’t reach anyone, one of the paramedics returned to the home to direct family members to the hospital.”
Klassen’s mother was driving home from work and noticed the ambulances and fire trucks parked outside her daughter’s home.
“She was just about having a heart attack,” Klassen said. “But they told her everything was fine.”
Klassen’s home will now have a special importance for her and her daughter.
“I don’t know if we can move now,” she said. “The bathroom has historical significance.”