Some of the first babies born at Côte-des-Neiges Birthing Centre return as adults to give birth
How many people can boast that TV cameras and a Quebec cabinet minister showed up at their birth? That’s what happened to Anabele Gagnon-Moustelly, whose arrival into the world was front-page news.
Ms. Gagnon-Moustelly was born on November 4, 1994, which happened to coincide with the inauguration of the Côte-des-Neiges Birthing Centre. Her mother, Jocelyne Gagnon, went into labour unexpectedly that morning, and by the time she arrived to deliver Anabele, Montreal’s first midwife-assisted birthing centre was in the midst of its launch.
Officials cut a ribbon—and a midwife cut Anabele’s umbilical cord. “I was born at the right moment,” Ms. Gagnon-Moustelly says today.
Ms. Gagnon-Moustelly blows out 30 candles on November 4, the same day the Birthing Centre marks its 30th anniversary—a milestone in the legal recognition of midwife-assisted births in the province.
“We’re celebrating 30 years of offering care differently,” says Marika Paré, Head of Midwife Services at the Côte-des-Neiges Birthing Centre, a member facility of CIUSSS West-Central Montreal. “We were pioneers. And we’ve succeeded in creating a communal place where families feel at home.”
More than 5,200 babies have been delivered by the Côte-des-Neiges midwife team since the Birthing Centre’s inception. Families can choose a midwife-assisted birth in hospital or at home, but eight in 10 choose the Birthing Centre itself, a homey former presbytery in the heart of Côte-des-Neiges. It features a family room, plant-filled communal kitchen and four birthing rooms on the second floor.
In three decades, the centre has gone from pilot project to a fixture in the lives of generations of Montreal families. Carmen Ruiz delivered a baby named Olivia at the Birthing Centre 21 years ago. Now Olivia is due to give birth to her second child with the help of the Birthing Centre team.
“The midwives take the time to ask a lot of questions and focus on the mother, not just the baby,” Olivia says. “You can tell that the midwives love their job and really care about you. And they make you realize that with the right support, you can do a lot.”
That notion of empowering expectant mothers and accompanying parents on the journey to parenthood is an essential part of their jobs, the midwives say. Marie-Hélène Théberge gave birth to three children with Côte-des-Neiges midwives and she was so impressed, she became a midwife there herself. She estimates she has helped deliver hundreds of babies in the past 15 years.
“We’re celebrating our profession, but we’re also recognizing the parents who choose an approach in which we listen and trust them, so that they felt supported in their choices,” says Midwife Marie-Hélène Théberge. “We’re interested in what’s going on in their heads, their hearts, and their bodies.”
Jocelyne Gagnon still vividly recalls the day in 1994 when she gave birth to Anabele. Though no births were scheduled at the Birthing Centre that day, Ms. Gagnon’s labour changed the program—and became part of the festive occasion. Soon after giving birth, Ms. Gagnon and her partner, Jean-Claude Moustelly, received a visit in their birthing room from provincial cabinet member Pauline Marois, Treasury Board President and Minister for Families at the time.
The inauguration—and Anabele’s birth—made the 6 o’clock news, which is how Ms. Gagnon’s mother in Quebec City learned about the birth of her first grandchild. Ms. Gagnon keeps a laminated family photo from her daughter’s birth in her home, a keepsake that captures the significance of the day in Ms. Gagnon’s life—and in Quebec’s history.
“The Birthing Centre will always be imprinted in my heart,” says Ms. Gagnon who also gave birth to her second child there. “It allowed me to give birth in a warm and human atmosphere. It feels like you’re in a home, and you feel the energy of all the births that occurred there, and the happiness too.” In her luminous main-floor office, Ms. Paré keeps a birth registry with hand-written entries of every baby delivered by the Birthing Centre team. Anabele and Olivia are in there, along with thousands of others. “It’s a tangible memento,” Ms. Paré says of the registry, “that illustrates the continuity of what we do here. I’m so proud of our team and what we’ve accomplished.”