A baby was delivered on the sidewalk outside the Fredericton hospital last month after a couple was told labour and birth services were unavailable at their local hospital more than an hour away.
Lauren and Nick Atkinson welcomed their daughter, Charlotte, on April 18 outside the ER entrance to the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in New Brunswick’s capital. The father delivered the baby outside in the cold before staff could help.
Lauren’s labour progressed too quickly to reach the delivery ward after the couple raced down the highway at breakneck speed.
“It all happened within 30 seconds of getting there,” she said in an interview.
It’s the second time a woman from Woodstock gave birth in harrowing circumstances.
Only a day after the sidewalk birth, another mom, Mariah Jackson, delivered her baby boy on side of the Trans-Canada Highway on April 19, a story that’s already been widely reported, much to the embarrassment of the Liberal government, which has promised better health care.
Both babies and moms survived their ordeals, but Bill Hogan, Progressive Conservative MLA for Woodstock-Hartland, warns that lives are being put at risk, ramping up pressure on the Liberals to fix the staff shortage at the Upper River Valley Hospital.
It is located near Hartland, only a short drive from Woodstock.
In the earlier incident – which is only now seeing the light of day because Hogan found out about it and brought it up at the legislature during Friday’s question period the two parents used their professional training to avoid going into a state of panic. Lauren is a paramedic and her husband Nick is a firefighter.
The mom, 26, was 39 weeks and four days pregnant with the couple’s third child when her water broke around 6:50 p.m. at their Upper Woodstock home. She said contractions immediately began two minutes apart.
The couple already knew Upper River Valley Hospital was suffering staff shortages and that mothers in labour were being redirected to Fredericton.
Lauren said she had warned health-care providers during appointments her previous labours had come quickly.
“I told the nurses at prenatal that I wouldn’t make it to Fredericton,” she said. “I knew it was going to be really fast.”
After her water broke, Atkinson called her local hospital to ask whether they’d notify the Chalmers she was coming. She said a staff member told her the Fredericton hospital already had her chart.
“They asked how far along I was, if it was my first baby, and I said it was my third and my contractions were already really close together,” she said. “And they said just to keep driving to Fredericton.”
Nick said there was little time to think during the drive.
“We just had to get there,” he said, adding their professional backgrounds as first responders helped them stay calm during the ordeal.
The couple arrived at the Chalmers emergency department around 7:38 p.m., less than an hour after labour had begun. Nick ran inside asking for a wheelchair but said he was initially told to wait in triage.
“I said, ‘No, the baby is coming now. We need help,'” he recalled.
By the time Nick returned to their truck, Lauren said their baby was already crowning.
“They wanted me to sit in the wheelchair and I said, ‘No, I need to push. She’s coming,'” she said.
Seconds later, Nick Atkinson delivered the baby himself on the sidewalk outside the emergency entrance.
It was 5 C at the time in Fredericton.
“It was perfect timing, Nick kneeled down in front of me and she just slid right out.” Lauren said, with Nick adding, “There was no time to think about it, we just had to do what we had to do.”
Hogan was outraged over the incident and brought it up at the legislature on Friday.
The Progressive Conservative health critic said he was frustrated by the staffing shortages, which have been ongoing for years.
Labour and delivery services at the Upper River Valley Hospital have been interrupted several times in recent months.
The latest diversion to the Chalmers, as the Horizon Health Network calls it, ended Friday at 5:30 p.m., after a one-day closure at Upper River Valley “due to a temporary lack of anesthesiology coverage to provide emergency caesarian sections (C-sections),” according to the health authority’s web page.
“It’s been an ongoing issue for years,” Hogan fumed. “And what I keep hearing is that ‘we’re working on it.’ Well, I’m sorry, but I can only buy that for so long. Because I’m not seeing anything change.”
Hogan pointed out that the baby born by the roadside was initially blue and struggling to breathe before paramedics arrived and suctioned his airways. The baby ended up OK.
The politician said the second mom outside the Chalmers was also lucky.
“Someone is gonna die, a baby or mother, if this keeps up,” Hogan said. “I mean, at least if you’re on the sidewalk in front of the hospital and you hemorrhage, then you might have a chance of survival. But this is a serious situation. And they were only coming from Woodstock, not from farther away in Plaster Rock or not from Tobique First Nation, a two-hour drive.”
Health Minister John Dornan declined an interview at the legislature on Friday but issued a statement to Brunswick News on Monday.
“What happened in Upper River Valley is unacceptable and not something we want to see happen to any New Brunswicker,” Dornan said. “The Department of Health is working hard to develop sustainable solutions on these gaps with the Regional Health Authority.”
The minister said as of April 14, five permanent physicians and 15 registered nurses had been successfully recruited to Upper River Valley Hospital over the last year.
A long-term locum physician has also been recruited for Family Medicine-Obstetrics. Recruitment is underway for an additional surgeon, with several candidates expressing interest, Dornan added.
He said nothing about anesthesiologists, who are in great demand.
“We are focused on the recruitment, training and retention of health-care professionals and are continually working with our partners to strengthen its workforce.”
A Horizon official, meanwhile, confirmed that a mother gave birth on April 18 outside the doors of the Chalmers.
“Clinical staff were immediately alerted and responded quickly to her location, providing care before transferring her and her newborn to the unit for follow-up care and observation,” said Christa Wheeler-Thorne, a clinical executive director with Horizon, in a prepared statement.
“We are pleased to share that both mother and baby were doing well and subsequently discharged. Patient safety is our top priority and we understand the distress and anxiety that can come when labour and birth services are not consistently available close to home.”
She said Horizon continues to recruit surgical, anesthesia, and OR-trained nursing professionals to address the staffing gaps that have contributed to diversions from the Upper River Valley Hospital.
David Coon, leader of the small opposition Green party, said it would make more sense for the local hospital to accept women in labour, even if it doesn’t have complete medical teams.
It would be better to give birth with only a few nurses to help than by the side of the road or on a sidewalk, he said.
Twenty-seven years ago, Coon found himself in similar circumstances while visiting the island of Grand Manan.
“When my wife was pregnant, very pregnant with our second daughter, we were on Grand Manan for a funeral. And we stopped in at the small hospital on Grand Manan. The nurses and nurse practitioners said, ‘don’t worry, if you’re going to labour, we’ve got you.'”
In the end, they didn’t need the service, but Coon said it was reassuring to know it was available.
The Atkinsons told Brunswick News they had already discussed the possibility of a rapid delivery because Lauren’s previous labours were extremely fast.
“We were joking during my pregnancy that Nick was going to have to deliver the baby.”
Lauren said their experience in emergency situations likely helped prevent panic.
“We’ve been around enough stuff in our lives. We’re kind of used to high-stress situations.”
Charlotte was born at 7:40 p.m., weighing eight pounds, 13 ounces.
Despite the circumstances, the couple stressed they do not blame health-care workers and praised staff at both the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville and the Chalmers, often called the DEC.
“Waterville’s been 100 per cent with all our other experiences,” Lauren Atkinson said. “The DEC too was amazing.”
Instead, they said they want to raise awareness about the risks rural families face when obstetrics services are unavailable locally.
Lauren recalled the story of a second mother who delivered a baby on the side of the highway roughly 12 hours later under similar circumstances.
“Everybody is not going to be as lucky as we were,” she said. “It was two mothers within 12 hours of each other dealing with similar situations. Something tragic, I hope not, is possible.”
“I couldn’t imagine if it was our first baby,” she said. “It would be pretty traumatizing.”
The couple said the full weight of the experience did not sink in until several days later.
In the end, they are both relieved that the experience ended happily.
“It was unfortunate that it happened, but I’m grateful to have an amazing birth story where Nick delivered the baby,” Lauren said. “Everybody’s not going to be as lucky as we were and it sounds easy to just say, ‘Oh, just go to Fredericton.’ But it’s not so easy for everyone. For people who do have fast labours, it’s not possible.”
Nick agreed, saying their story ended safely, but worries others may not be as prepared if faced with a similar situation.
“We just want to bring awareness to this for other couples and mothers,” Nick said. “I don’t want to see something bad happen to another mother or baby, everybody’s not going to be as lucky as we were.”
– with files from Shana Grey
By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on May 14, 2026 at 10:55
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