Unvaccinated B.C. mother with COVID-19 the 1st in Canada to deliver baby on ECMO life support machine – CTV

Oct. 26, 2021

VANCOUVER – Two weeks after first being admitted to hospital for COVID-19, a woman from northern B.C. has given birth while in a medically-induced coma.
The baby, named Skyler Katie Barbara Binette, was delivered on Saturday at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, B.C., while mother Krystal St. Pierre remained unconscious in critical condition on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) breathing machine.

“She weighed three pounds and a half an ounce. So she’s just a tiny little thing, but she’s my miracle baby,” said father Dwayne Binette. “She is breathing on her own, and last night they tried feeding her for the first time, and that went well.”

Doctors chose to deliver the baby girl by C-section nearly three months early, because they were worried her mom’s condition could endanger Skyler.

“The baby’s life support is always the mom. So if mom suddenly becomes unwell, which is a very high risk if someone is as sick as they are on ECMO, then the idea is to intervene early,” said Dr. Christina Nowik, an obstetrician with a sub-speciality in maternal/fetal medicine at Royal Columbian.

Read more: https://bc.ctvnews.ca/unvaccinated-b-c-mother-with-covid-19-the-1st-in-canada-to-deliver-baby-on-ecmo-life-support-machine-1.5638156