The first baby of 2026 in Quebec was born at midnight on Thursday at the Centre mère-enfant de l’Hôpital du Suroît in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, in the Montérégie region.
The CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest made the announcement Thursday afternoon in a post on social media. The child is a little girl named Anaïah.
Another baby was born shortly after, at 12:02 a.m., at the CHUL hospital of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval.
The baby girl, named Lessy-Ann, weighed 3,970 grams and measured 51.5 centimeters, according to the hospital in Quebec City. She is the first child of Alyson Brown-Tremblay and Stéphanie Lévesque. Both mothers and baby are doing well.
“It’s the best gift we could have asked for at the start of the new year,” said Brown-Tremblay. The new mother did not expect to welcome her daughter until after 2026.
“I had been in labor for 32 hours, and then the C-section took 40 minutes, so it was a complete surprise,” she said.
“The CHU would like to warmly congratulate the new parents and wish them every happiness,” the hospital said in a statement.
In Montreal, at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), the first baby of the year was born at 12:46 a.m. She is also a girl, named Sophia, weighing 3.6 kilograms. Her parents, Miriam Azer and Maged Youssef, are from Vaudreuil.
Both mother and child are doing well.
“Congratulations to Miriam and Maged on the arrival of their baby, and best wishes for happiness to the whole family!” said the MUHC in a press release.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews