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Maruschke Barnard was already two weeks late with her first baby on September 4, 2010.
Lying in bed at the Christchurch Women’s Hospital, she had endured a 17-hour labor in the early hours of the morning and it seemed likely she would have to be induced.
She tried one last push, and this time her baby’s head appeared. So did the 7.1 magnitude earthquake.
“I was in bed, but everyone else ran out from under the doors,” he recalls.
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“The hospital staff were scared, we thought it was a train, and all the water in the pool, it was like a tsunami.”
That was at 4.35am. At 4:41 a.m., her first daughter, Dianthe Rose, was welcomed into a world of chaos.
“It was all a little crazy. We lived in Sumner and we didn’t know if we would even have a house to return to. ”
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON / Stuff
Maruschke Barnard with her daughter, Dianthe, born during the earthquake in September 2010.
Her husband Evert went to check it out and, with the house still standing, Maruschke and Dianthe were released from the hospital two hours later.
“The elevators were not working, so I had to go down all the stairs after giving birth.”
While the new family were happy to have escaped unscathed, with a story to tell future grandchildren, they weren’t so lucky in February.
That earthquake caused extensive damage to their home, and after the June earthquake, they were forced to find another place to live.
“It was very difficult to get anywhere in Christchurch, there was nothing to buy, there were no rentals,” Maruschke said.
They ended up moving to Darfield, and even though insurance was a nightmare from the September earthquake, they didn’t look back.
On the way to her 10th birthday, Dianthe can tell the story word for word (she has heard her parents tell it every year) and is proud to be an earthquake baby.
Maruschke said there was never a dull moment with Dianthe, who was proving to be a firecracker.
“She likes everything, she’s very busy,” she said of the young school librarian and ukulele player.
“I don’t know if it was the earthquake that filled her with energy, but it has always been that way.”
Incredibly, her dramatic entry into the world did not discourage her parents from having another baby: Dianthe has four younger siblings, ages 9 months to 9 years.
STACY SQUIRES / Stuff
Earthquake baby Lola Romero turns 10 on September 4. She holds up a newspaper clipping from 2014.
At the end of the hospital corridor, María Romero was in a birthing pool preparing to receive her second daughter, Lola.
They had given her pain relief, so she felt quite calm when the lights went out, although it was a surreal experience when the nurses started running down the hall.
“I couldn’t believe my luck, I didn’t think Christchurch would be hit by an earthquake, we all thought it was Wellington.”
The commotion delayed Lola’s arrival for three hours; Romero believes his body told him that it was not safe to deliver a baby during the tremor.
“My body went into shock, the contractions stopped and she came back in.”
STACY SQUIRES / Stuff
Lola Romero with her mother, María Romero. She was born three hours after the 2010 earthquake.
Even after Lola was born, Romero said it was difficult to give her his full attention.
“Looking back, I think those first few hours of bonding were stolen from me.
“I should have been celebrating, but I was worried about the house, the dog, the fish tank.
“I didn’t know if [my 2-year-old] Lucas was fine. ”
While it turned out that she was fine and her home in Papanui was still standing, the following days in the hospital were uneventful.
He was not allowed to receive visitors, there was no water, the hospital was running on generators, and many of the doctors were tidying their houses.
Ten years later, Romero’s earthquake baby is sassy and sporty.
He loved dancing and hockey and had always been independent: he walked for nine months.
She was also the inspiration for Romero’s passion for the monarch butterfly – the couple visit schools across the country to talk to students and host butterfly parties.
“The earthquakes made me change as a mother, they taught me to really live in the moment,” said Romero.
“When I realized how much time Lola was spending in the garden, absorbed in nature and so happy, I wanted all the other children to experience it.”
