These births couldn’t be deterred by Mother Nature’s mayhem
Snow, ice, not even a blizzard can stop a baby’s arrival. Here are some incredible moms who braved weather conditions that were less than ideal to give birth. And some even marked the triumphant occasion with weather-inspired names.
AccuWeather welcomes Bernie Rayno’s mother as a special guest ahead of Mother’s Day weekend. She shares her son’s early life and how he got into weather, which led to him becoming a meteorologist.
Some studies say a drop in barometric pressure induces labor while others have noted just the anxiety of losing electricity during a severe storm and being cut off from loved ones spurs the contractions. But whatever the reason, when a baby is due to arrive, nothing is going to get in the way -- not even a blizzard.
Here are a few instances when frantic parents could not stop their little one from arriving amid severe weather:
Baby arrives during blizzard with help from Facebook group
Snow covers downtown Buffalo on Dec. 26, 2022, after a blizzard roared through western New York days earlier, stranding motorists, knocking out power and preventing emergency crews from reaching residents in frigid homes and stuck cars. (Twitter page of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul via AP)
When a blizzard paired with a bomb cyclone struck Buffalo, New York, near Christmas of 2022, it put a hold on countless family gatherings for the holidays. However, there was one family member of the Thomas family who wasn't waiting for the snow to clear days later.
With a baby girl due on Christmas Day, Erica and Davon Thomas considered how they could possibly get to the hospital through the storm. With snow on the roads, driving wasn't a possibility. Neither was walking. First responders were also unable to reach the soon-to-be parents. So the couple turned to the community. Davon Thomas' friend turned the couple to the Buffalo Blizzard 2022 Facebook group, an online community that had transformed into an emergency response team during the storm.
The Thomas' told WGRZ, a Buffalo news station, that two doulas coached them through the home birth over the phone, and their neighbor who had had a home birth of her own came over to support Erica Thomas. Come Christmas morning, another community member drove the new parents and their newborn -- after they trudged through the snow to the truck -- to Oishei Children's Hospital.
"It was just a joy that someone next door gave a care in their heart," Erica Thomas said of neighbor Katie McClain-Meeder.
'We might have the baby in the car'
Baby ‘Winter’ was born to the Wade family in the middle of the massive storm that battered the San Bernardino Mountains.
The Wade family was in a similar situation in late February when a heavy-hitting blizzard isolated families in Southern California's San Bernardino Mountains. When the nine-month-pregnant Crystal Wade saw the forecast for their home at Lake Arrowhead, her and her husband, Brady Wade, were alarmed but decided to stay on the mountain since he was an essential emergency worker.
But while he was at work, Crystal's contractions began and thus started the odyssey down the mountain. On a clear day without snow, the drive to the nearest hospital is more than 50 miles away, Brady told TODAY.com. But the bumpy, unplowed roads made the trip more treacherous and Crystal's contractions more intense, she told the news outlet.
"We might have the baby in the car," she told her husband halfway down the mountain. At one point, they had to choose between stopping at the fire department or risking continuing on to the closest hospital. They chose the latter -- and made it just in time.
By the end of the harrowing journey, the happy couple had the perfect name for their newborn girl: Winter.
'It was chaotic': Father delivers son during ice storm
A man races his wife to the hospital to give birth, but mother nature had other plans.
Matt and Pilar Gauthier were headed to the hospital during a February 2019 ice storm in Wisconsin after Pilar started going into labor, but Mother Nature had other plans.
Quickly realizing the roads were too treacherous and that his wife was about to give birth to their fourth child, Matt pulled over and called 911. With the dispatcher guiding him with instructions, Matt delivered the baby -- in a span of 5 minutes. "It was chaotic," Pilar told AccuWeather.
A 'miracle' baby is born in Texas storm
When Helen Woldemichael started going into labor in March of 2021, still months before her due date, she first thought the contractions were Braxton Hicks, or false labor pains. However, when it became clear that they were real, she and her husband, Abiey Woldemichael, started their journey through the late-season winter storm that froze water pipes and left millions in Texas without electricity.
As Abiey drove on the icy roads, the baby kept on coming. Soon, Helen would deliver her daughter in the car at just 25 weeks gestation. "I was worried we were going to lose her. She was so tiny. I didn't think she was going to make it," Helen told TODAY.com. "That was terrifying."
The couple made it safely to Baylor University Medical Center, where the hospital's Level 4 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit team met them. After the miraculous birth and care for their new baby girl, Helen and Abiey named their daughter "Amari," which Helen explained means "miracle" in Hebrew.
Special delivery during Canada's worst ice storm
Residents clean up in Montreal after the worst ice and snow storm in recent history hit Quebec, Canada, in 1998. (Photo by Christopher J. Morris/Corbis via Getty Images)
The timing "wasn't great" when Jolene Bear, a resident of the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory near Montreal, Canada, went into labor. It was the morning of Jan. 9, 1998, when she felt the baby coming.
Meanwhile, one of the most devastating ice storms to hit Quebec was raging outside the house.
"When they wheeled me out -- I'll never forget this -- I had to close my eyes because the ice pellets were hitting me in the face," Bear told the Montreal Gazette of when the ambulance took her to the hospital. "It was nice outside, sunny even, but that ice kept falling."
With only minutes to spare after arriving at the LaSalle hospital, her daughter, Ta'kawisenhawe Ivory Stacey, was born. Years after her birth, Stacey is now known as "the Ice Storm baby," a nickname that is reflected in her Mohawk name as Ta'kawisenhawe translates into English as "She brings the ice."
With Mother’s Day weekend approaching, Kristina Shalhoup shares a message from her mother who was a science teacher who played an important role in helping her become a meteorologist.
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