Carmanville woman gives birth to baby girl 12 months after major stroke
Almost one year to the day since she suffered a stroke, Carly White was once again being rushed to the hospital.
With her husband, Nathanael, behind the wheel, there was nowhere she would rather be going.
She was about to give birth to the couple's first child, a healthy and happy baby girl.
"When we both saw her, Nathanael and I both cried," she said. "We couldn't believe that I grew a human and we made this little thing."
Baby Allawna Jean White didn't come easy. It was a hard, 22-hour labour for Carly White, but it was all worth it when she held her daughter for the first time.
Hard road to happiness
It wasn't just the labour, though. Nothing about their journey to parenthood came easy.
The young couple tried for two years to have a child, but were devastated when they couldn't conceive.
And then came the stroke.
On July 31, 2017, Nathanael drove his wife from their home in Carmanville to the hospital in Gander after a nagging migraine kept growing more intense.
Hours later, her condition worsened and hospital staff realized she was having a stroke. She was airlifted to St. John's where emergency brain surgery prevented a hemorrhage and saved her life.
For days, she remained in a coma while Nathanael sat by her side.
She woke up paralyzed in her left side, including her throat. She was unable to speak or move, and had no recollection of how she got there.
Just 12 days later, she shared her story with CBC News on a wooded trail outside the hospital. Still unable to walk, her goal was to get out of her wheelchair as soon as possible and get back to her normal life.
Three months later, her normal life was turned upside down again — this time with the news they'd wanted for more than two years.
"I called [Nathanael] and I said, 'Honey, we're going to be parents,'" she recalled. "He was pretty much floored when I told him."
White never thought of her pregnancy being despite her stroke, but rather because of the stroke. Being sick gave her willpower to get healthier than she'd ever been before, which she believes led to her successful pregnancy.
Weighing in at a half-ounce shy of seven pounds, their daughter was born on Aug. 4, five days after the one-year anniversary of the worst day of Nathanael and Carly White's lives.
From being on death's door to creating new life, it's been a momentous year for the family.
"The love between Nathanael and I can survive anything. Literally. We've been through hell and high water. It's just amazing that we came out on top of everything," she said.
"We're just very, very lucky people to say the least."
Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
