Child-care centre to open in Lethbridge in the fall
A new child-care centre is now under construction, and when it opens in the fall, it will be the first facility in Lethbridge to offer 24-hour care.
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CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Heat warning in effect in Hamilton, surrounding areas could feel like 39
A heat warning has been issued for Hamilton, Niagara, Burlington and surrounding areas from Sunday until Tuesday, according to Environment Canada. Monday is set to be the hottest in Hamilton with a high of 31 C, but it may feel more like 39 with the humidity factored in. "There is some uncertainty in the duration of the heat event for some regions ... Over some areas the heat event could persist into Wednesday," the weather agency said in its heat warning. Tuesday is expected to see a high of 31 C and a low of 20 C. Environment Canada recommends people check on those who are vulnerable, stay hydrated and watch out for symptoms of heat exhaustion. "Signs may include headache, nausea, dizziness, thirst, dark urine and intense fatigue," said the weather agency. It also suggests people close their blinds and open windows if it feels cooler outside than inside. Using a fan or air conditioner, limiting direct exposure to the sun, and wearing lightweight, light-coloured clothing also advised. The medical officer of health for the City of Hamilton initiated a heat warning starting Sunday. The city and some community agencies will open cooling areas for people to go to during the heat and humidity.
CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
My baby nearly didn't survive her birth. Her presence has made me a grateful mom
This First Person article is the experience of Lauren Helstrom, who lives in Saskatoon with her daughter Evee. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ. Right from the moment of her delivery, my daughter's life hung by a thread. I'd gone into labour 17 weeks before my due date, and something in my bones screamed danger. After getting admitted at the hospital, I was rushed onto a stretcher and wheeled through double doors, past people too afraid to meet my gaze. It felt like the room itself was holding its breath. I was supposed to say goodbye. A labour and delivery nurse kneeled beside me, gripped my hand and whispered, "I'm not leaving you." I didn't know how badly I needed those words until they reached me. Motherhood didn't begin the way I dreamed. But strangers in masks and gowns gave me the chance to be the mother I dreamed I could be. My daughter, Evee, was born at 23 weeks and four days gestation, weighing 561 grams — just the size of a bag of candy. She emerged still wrapped in her amniotic sac — skin like wet rose petals, lungs too tiny to rise and fall. She was silent. No heartbeat. Not breathing. But the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) team was there and ready, not to mourn, but to fight. A resident stepped in to resuscitate her. I will never forget his face — the tears in his eyes as he fought for her life with both hands. They brought her back. They saved her. They saved us both. A ghost of a mother The NICU was like another planet. Foreign. Unforgiving. Sacred. I wasn't handed my baby. I wasn't even allowed to touch her. She lay inside a glass box, her chest flickering with effort, tangled in wires and tubes. Machines surrounded her — blinking, hissing, screaming a language I didn't understand. I sat at her bedside, afraid to breathe too loud and overwhelmed by alarms that wouldn't stop. They pierced my eardrums and stabbed my heart. The first time I sang You Are My Sunshine, I didn't make it past the line, "Please don't take my sunshine away." I wept into my hands. Was I a mother? I couldn't cradle my baby or feed her. I needed permission just to place my fingertip on her paper-thin skin. I felt like a ghost of a mother. Invisible. Useless. Failing. I was haunted by the feeling: "You're saying goodbye." Evee spent 130 days in the NICU. She battled retinopathy of prematurity, chronic lung disease, seizures, an open duct in her heart and the worst yet — a grade 4 brain bleed and hydrocephalus. Through it all, the NICU staff were the hands that held me when I collapsed. And yet, within that grief, there was devotion. If you're a parent - you'll remember what it was like to be in a hospital delivery room. That memory is still fresh for Lauren Helstrom, whose daughter was born 17 weeks prematurely and spent the first months of her life at the neonatal intensive care unit in Saskatoon. Lauren has written a First Person piece for CBC on that experience, and shares her insights with host Shauna Powers. I changed her micro-sized diapers with trembling hands. I started to feel like her mother not in dramatic moments, but in small sacred ones — when she grasped my finger, or when a nurse said, "She knows your voice." When another NICU parent passed me in the hallway and gave a nod like we shared something unspoken. We were part of a club no one wanted to join. Even after we came home, we faced a new chapter filled with medical complexity, with several continued check-ups that continue for Evee today. And the shadows continued to visit. Post-traumatic stress after the NICU is not rare. It is real. It is silent. And it can destroy you if you carry it alone. The wounds don't close just because you've been discharged. But slowly, we've emerged from that dark time in NICU. My daughter didn't walk or talk until after the age of two. But once she started — she ran, she talked, she laughed. Now, at age three, Evee is vibrant and full of life. She dances barefoot in the kitchen and sings with her whole chest. She calls me "Mommy" like it's the most natural word in the world. I became a mother in a room where I once felt I had to say goodbye. I became a mother beside ventilators, signing forms, praying silently. I became a mother when I learned to hold hope and fear in the same breath. I became a mother the moment I refused to stop asking for help. I became a mother when I stayed by her side while others left the room. I became a mother when I looked at her — impossibly small, impossibly alive — and whispered: "Stay with me, my girl." And she did.
CBC
5 hours ago
- CBC
What is swimmer's itch? And how can you treat it?
For many, it's not summer until you've taken a dip in one of B.C.'s glistening lakes, a welcome reprieve from those hot July days. But sometimes, you end up with something not so welcome: itchy red bumps on your skin. Some call it swimmer's itch, some call it duck itch, and for others, it's simply the itch. But what is it, exactly? University of Northern British Columbia zoologist Dezene Huber said that itch — whatever you call it — is caused by a parasitic flatworm. "It's really quite tiny," he told CBC's Daybreak North guest host Bill Fee. "You're not able to really see it very well with your naked eye." That worm begins as an egg in the water, Huber said, and when it hatches, the little larvae swim using little hairs on the sides of their bodies in search of a snail. Once they get into the snail, they reproduce asexually in "vast numbers." From there, the new larvae leave the snail, in search of something larger — any sort of water bird, but usually a duck, Huber said. Once they find a duck, they burrow into the bird's feet and get into its circulatory system en route to its gut. That's where they lay the eggs that are then returned to the water when the duck poops. You may notice humans aren't involved in that life cycle at all. But humans, like ducks, are warm in the water, so sometimes, those little parasites mistake people for ducks. "They're really well adapted to survive in a duck, but they're not well adapted to survive in a human, so as soon as they burrow into the skin of a human, they die just underneath the skin of the human and that causes an allergic reaction," Huber said. "It's basically parasites making mistakes in a fairly complex life cycle." Those itchy red bumps you get are an immune response as your body rejects a parasite trying to get inside you, Huber said. Treatment While these parasites aren't causing long-term harm to humans, that itch can be pretty uncomfortable. According to the province, scratching those bumps can lead to pain and even infection. Fort St. James, B.C., pharmacist Ankur Pipaliya said the best tip for avoiding the itch is to avoid swimming in areas known to be a problem for swimmer's itch.. But, if you do, he said, towel dry or shower immediately after you get out of the water. Showers should be with cold water, Pipaliya said. And then, he said, apply moisturizer. "Dry skin, it promotes that allergic reaction. So if your skin is moist, it kind of helps you from having any irritations." If it's too late and you've already got red, itchy bumps from swimming in the lake, Pipaliya said he usually suggests mild corticosteroid creams to reduce discomfort, along with cold showers and cold compresses on the bumps. He said Epsom salts and baking soda also help, as well as over-the-counter allergy medications like Benadryl. The province also suggests calamine lotion and colloidal oatmeal baths for relief from swimmer's itch. It said symptoms can develop within 12 hours after infection, and can last anywhere from two days to two weeks.
