Lighthearted controversy is swirling over which pint-sized package of joy won the race to become the first baby born in Quebec in 2017.
At the MUHC, Abigail Yilin Wan Fong was born at 1:27 a.m. on Jan. 1, making her the first tyke to enter the world in Montreal.
Her father, David Wan Fong, was understandably excited.
“It’s kind of good for her, to start her life in a special way, to be the first baby in Montreal,” he said. “So this makes her even more special for us.”
Tiny Abigail came after an arduous pregnancy for mother Junjie Liu.
“I was a pregnancy diabetic, so the baby had to be induced at 39 weeks,” she said. “The hospital scheduled the induction. We came and tried the natural birth but the baby’s head was stuck and didn’t want to come down. That’s why we had the emergency c-section.”
With no official rules for the annual race, there’s some debate on whether Abigail was the first born on the island.
Nurse Marcia Ribeiro explained that there’s some informal rules.
“There’s a kind of grey area as to whether the c-section is valid because sometimes doctors or nurses can time the delivery to be in our favour,” she said.
A baby boy was born at CHUM at 4:31 a.m. while a baby born in Rouyn-Noranda has laid claim to being the first born in Quebec, entering the world at 12:05 a.m. That’s earlier than another baby boy born in Laval who had previously been reported to be the first. That baby was born at 12:23 a.m.
