Beaches-East York MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith helps deliver baby son Crawford

Beaches-East York MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and his wife Amy Symington welcomed the birth of their second son a little sooner than they expected on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 22.

The couple were heading towards the Birthing Centre at Michael Garron Hospital when their son Crawford decided he wasn’t waiting any longer.
“We weren’t expecting it to be so fast so we did not go to the ER,” Erskine-Smith told Beach Metro News.

“We entered through the Coxwell entrance and were making our way to the Birthing Centre and the baby came.”

Amy was able to sit down on a bench in an empty hallway, and Erskine-Smith himself delivered their son.

“Amy did all the hard work. I just had to make sure I didn’t drop him,” Erskine-Smith said of the delivery.

Within seconds of Crawford being born, hospital staff came running down the hallway to help. “It was just me and Amy and an empty hallway, and within 30 seconds ER staff came running around the corner,” Erskine-Smith said.

“The ER was very quick but he (Crawford) was a little faster. I was glad they were right there after he was born as they took him right away and made sure everything was okay and got Amy up into a bed.”

Erskine-Smith said Amy woke him at 4:30 a.m. on the morning of Dec. 22 to say it was time for them to go to the hospital for the birth. They left their home “just before 5 and baby was born at 5:17.”

He admitted it was an experience he was not expecting, though perhaps he should have noted a case of foreshadowing when it came to stories of MPs delivering babies.

“I had done this show Political Blind Date with a Conservative colleague and he told me the story of how he delivered his baby,” said Erskine-Smith. “But his wife was a doctor and talked him through it. I remembered thinking at the time that must have been terrifying, but you do what you have to do in the moment.”

He said Amy, Crawford and their three-year-old son Mack are all happy, healthy and doing well.

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