SPRINGFIELD — Giving birth is one way to spend New Year’s Eve.
At 12:19 a.m. Friday, Autumn Scanlon, a South Hadley resident, gave birth to Shea, who was 5 pounds, 10 ounces. About four minutes later, she gave birth to Violet, who weighed in at 6 pounds, 4 ounces.
They were the first babies born at Baystate Medical Center in 2021, according to a hospital spokesperson.
“It’s exciting, but we were really surprised,” Scanlon said Friday afternoon, describing how she and her husband, Doug Scanlon, felt. “I was actually supposed to have a C-section yesterday, and it was because one of my babies was breech.”
But right before the scheduled caesarean operation on Friday, medical staff double-checked and found that the baby was no longer feet first and an operation wouldn’t be necessary, Scanlon said.
Scanlon and her husband thought the twins would come by the end of the day, “but it took a little longer than we thought, and it was getting closer to midnight — it was probably around quarter to or ten to that they rolled me into the OR [operating room] to push.”
Others were excited the babies could be the first of the year. “I don’t care. Just get them out,” she recalled thinking.
“I was just glad to get them out and that they are are healthy,” she said. “It’s an added bonus that it’s a very special day and a new year.”
It was “a great way to start a new year.”
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.