Rebecca and Garnett Genius deal with unexpected home birth
Rebecca and Garnett Genius didn't plan for a home birth. And it was a midwife, not the father, who was supposed to help their little boy into the world.
However Judah, the couple's second child, had different plans when he arrived earlier than expected last week.
"All of a sudden the baby was coming," Garnett told the CBC's Tim Adams Monday.
"At that point, Rebecca was a bit more relaxed than I was."
Hear the full interview
The couple was in bed together in their Sherwood Park home early Wednesday morning when Rebecca's water broke. However, the expectant mother wasn't experiencing any labour pains, so she sent her husband back to bed and went down to the living room.
By 4:30 a.m., contractions started. Rebecca alerted the couple's midwife and woke her husband up. About an hour later, they called Garnett's parents to call for a ride to the hospital.
However, Judah was determined not to wait. Within 10 minutes, it became obvious getting to the hospital was out of the question.
"That was the call to the midwife, saying 'there's a head coming out,' " Rebecca said.
As a family doctor specializing in preconception care, Rebecca has no shortage of medical knowledge. But seeing as she was a bit preoccupied, the task of actually delivering Judah fell into Garnett's hands.
"I have no medical training whatsoever. I took high school (biology) and didn't do that well in it," he said.
'The main event'
The couple was able to get EMS workers on the phone to help them with the birth. That, along with Rebecca's calm instruction, helped the father deliver the couple's son safely.
Soon, Judah was cradled safely in his mother's arms. That's when the cavalry arrived: a half dozen firefighters, along with the midwife and Judah's grandparents.
"For the main event, it was just me, Rebecca and baby Judah," Garnett said.
While the home birth wasn't what the couple expected, Rebecca said she felt remarkably calm about the whole thing. The couple's midwife had helped prepare them for what had to be done, and her own medical knowledge convinced her that it was something that the couple could handle on their own.
"You know it is this is natural process that usually goes well," she said.
"I felt a lot of confidence that it was going to go okay."
And she doesn't mind the fact that the quicker-than-expected delivery meant she wasn't in labour for hours.
While the surprise delivery made for a few worrying moments, now that Judah is safely born, the couple view it as a "cool story" that they'll make sure to tell the boy when he is older. And, Rebecca joked, perhaps a new family duty for Garnett.
"I told him he could deliver the rest of our kids."
