Record number of babies born at the Winchester, Ont. hospital in 2021

An eastern Ontario hospital is celebrating after a record-setting 2021 that saw 796 babies delivered in the maternity ward.

Dallas Fawcett was the first to arrive around 4:45 p.m. on Jan. 1, 2021. Little did anyone know she would be the start of something unique.

"She came in with a bang and I don't think we would have had it any other way," said Dallas' mother, Shelby Fraser-Clouthier from Morrisburg, Ont.

The baby boom included six sets of twins, according to Winchester Memorial District Hospital (WDMH).

"To have the record number of babies born here than in any year before, it's very exciting," WDMH CEO Cholly Boland said. "We had our suspicions! It's impossible to predict, no one has a crystal ball around here."

Boland said hospital staff started to get an idea of what was happening last summer.

"That's our peak time, so we know if the summer is really busy that may lend itself to continuing into the end of the year," he said.

Elizabeth Peters was born in July 2021 at the Winchester District Memorial Hospital. (Photo courtesy: Heather Peters)

Former Winchester resident Heather Peters welcomed her daughter Elizabeth at WDMH in July.

"When my time came, they kept pushing me back because they had so many women in labour that day," Peters said. "They ended up pushing me back by about two days and then I ended up going in labour naturally."

Nurses told her it had been a busy few weeks.

"They were saying like, 'A lot of babies being born, it seems to be the theme this year', was that everybody decided that they were going to have a baby," Peters said with a laugh.

While the record seems like a lot for a town of about 2,500 people, surprisingly it's not far off the hospital's yearly average.

"Usually it's between 650-700, 720 deliveries every year," Boland said, noting the hospital's reputation attracts people from farther away.

"On average, our patients come from about an hour's radius of Winchester, so that's southern part of Ottawa, Leeds Grenville, Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, that area," he said.

"Sometimes, two hours away, which as a dad I think that is a bit distant, to cause a dad maybe some nerves, but that's the result of people's experience here and we're very proud of it," Boland said.

Boland also noted while the record number of babies averages out to more than two births a day, it doesn't actually happen like that.

"It's not predictable, we could go a couple days with no births and a couple days with eight or nine per day," Boland said. "I think our record in 24 hours is somewhere around 10 or 12.

Shelby Fraser-Clouthier with her daughter Dallas, who was born at the Winchester District Memorial Hospital on Jan. 1, 2021. (Nate Vandermeer/CTV News Ottawa)

Both Peters and Fraser-Clouthier said the level of care, even though the hospital was busy, was fantastic.

"Winchester was the best hospital. They were kind, caring, attentive and I had an incredible team with my midwives," said Fraser-Clouthier.

"It was great. The nurses were wonderful, the doctors were wonderful, and I think I was only there about six or seven hours before Lizzy was born," added Peters. "The nurses basically said it's been busy. The atmosphere was very go, go, go, kind of non-stop."

As for why the record might have been broken in 2021, everyone has their suspicions.

"She's my little COVID baby, in a sense that we were home, I was working from home, like there was not much to do," laughed Peters.

"At the time (the pandemic) was going to keep going on, like there was no end in sight, and it just seems like a perfect opportunity to just be home and you know, you're going to be home anyways. With a baby so why not take the opportunity to do it," she added. "I think that definitely the pandemic kind of pushed people to making the decision."

"People definitely found something to do during quarantine," said Fraser-Clouthier. "I definitely think being home was a big part of it and having a chance to really calm down and step back from the chaos and busyness of life."

"People were at home and that's maybe the reason," smiled Boland. "No one has confirmed with that."

"It's such a rewarding experience in here to be part of giving life, helping someone come into the world," Boland added. "When we've done something that we haven't done before, it's that much better."