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Baby born in Tofino

“At 3 a.m., my wife woke up and said to me, ‘It’s time.’”
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Alana Janisse holds new baby Jackson alongside her four-year-old son Matteo and husband Justin with the family’s dog Max in the foreground. The Janisses were thrilled to welcome their newest addition at Tofino General Hospital on June 29.

The best laid plans of expectant parents are often ignored by babies.

Jackson Barlow Janisse earned some serious local bragging rights last week when he became likely the only student in his future kindergarten class to have access to West Coast born and raised status.

Jackson weighed in at 7 lbs, 13 ounces, when he entered the world on June 29. The young West Coaster, named after his grandfather Jack, was born at Tofino General Hospital, which has not offered obstetrical services since 2008.

His parents Justin and Alana Janisse had been in Nanaimo, where Jackson was scheduled to be born on July 11, going through their birth plan with Alana’s obstetrician and returned to Ucluelet roughly 12 hours before that plan became moot in the early morning of June 29.

“At 3 a.m., my wife woke up and said to me, ‘It’s time,’” Justin said.

“I woke up from a contraction and I stood up out of bed and my water broke,” Alana said. “I thought to myself, ‘Oh my god. We’ve got to go.”

The couple hopped into their car with their four-year-old son Matteo in tow and, after confirming Alana’s dad could handle Justin’s 6 a.m. fishing charter group, sped off to Tofino.

Justin said that although he knew Tofino General no longer delivered babies, he also knew turning right at the junction and taking the hour-long journey over Sutton Pass was not an option.

“I thought, ‘I can’t go towards Port Alberni because I’m going to end up having to deal with [delivering] this baby myself with my wife and my son, out of cell service and it’s not going to be safe,’” he said.

The ride was harrowing for Alana who ran through every worst case scenario along the way.

“Because I’m a Type 1 diabetic, there’s an increased chance of complications, which is why Dr. [Carrie] Marshall recommended I go to an obstetrician in Nanaimo,” Alana said. “All of those things pop into your head, but Justin talked me out of thinking that way helpfully…He remained calm and was totally great.”

The couple arrived at Tofino General around 3:40 a.m. Jackson was born at 6:58 a.m., according to Alana, who was also born at Tofino General.

“Shortly after we got there, they set me up in the room I was born in, actually, and gave me an examination and Dr. Marshall looked at me and said, ‘Well, it looks like you’re having a baby in Tofino,’” Alana said. “So, I’m glad we went up to Tofino instead of trying to go out of town because there’s no way we would have made it, especially without cell service or anything.”

Along with being in the same room she was born in, Alana was assisted by the same doctor who had helped deliver her.

“They ended up calling in the doctor that delivered me when I was born, Dr. [Steven] Thicke, to come and help because he’d had so much more experience delivering babies back in the day,” Alana said.

“The doctor looked at her and said, ‘The first time I met you, you were his age,’ and pointed at my brand new hour-old son,” Justin added.

He said it was a great experience for both his family and the hospital staff.

“We got to deal with it with people we know. Our family doctors and nurses we knew. The people walking into the hospital were Ucluelet and Tofino locals saying, ‘Hi’ and giving us high fives,” he said.

“All the nurses took such great care of us…36 hours after we arrived at the hospital, we were discharged with a beautiful baby boy.”

Alana said the care she received was tremendous.

“It was outstanding. Dr. Marshall and Dr. Williston kind of tag teamed it and it was really cool to see them pull it all together and make it work,” she said.

“The staff at the Tofino Hospital was outstanding. They did a great, great, job.”

Justin added that new big brother Matteo was thrilled to witness his new sibling’s arrival.

“Matteo was present for the whole birth and he was amazed by it,” Justin said. “He totally wanted to be a part of that and stayed in the room the whole time; couldn’t tear him away from it.”

The couple wasted no time introducing their community to its newest little local.

“The day after we got released, we were down at the Canada Day celebration at the Village Green, walking around with a two-day-old baby,” Alana said.

“He’s amazing. We’re so happy,” Justin added.

“Everything’s rolling perfectly at this point.”

He said the fishing group he’d been scheduled to take out the morning Jackson arrived was in good hands with his father-in-law.

“He landed two halibut over 50 lbs and a bunch of salmon and, as soon as he was done, he showed up at the hospital to see his grandson,” Justin said.



Andrew Bailey

About the Author: Andrew Bailey

I arrived at the Westerly News as a reporter and photographer in January 2012.
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