When he gets older, Tiernan Stone Essick will have a story to tell about how he was born by the glow of lights from cell phones and flashlights on Feb. 23, 2023, during a power outage at UPMC Williamsport.

Although her actual due date was March 8, Tiernan’s mom, Kalyn Essick, with her husband, Kristopher, by her side, had gone to the hospital earlier that day when the early stages of labor began.

“My water broke at like 4:15 in the morning, and we traveled to the hospital around 7 a.m.,” said Kalyn, who lives just outside Montoursville.

By the time they reached the hospital, her contractions were five minutes apart, and she was given an epidural which slowed her labor down.

“I hadn’t been pushing at all yet. I wasn’t in active labor, but I had been there and got my epidural at like 10 a.m.,” she said, “so that’s why we didn’t push until the evening.”

And then that’s when the lights went out, at 7:30 p.m., and Kalyn spent her entire active labor in the dark illuminated by flashlights and lights from cell phones.

At that point, Kalyn, who is a first-time mom, said she thought, “This is new to me, but I don’t think this is how it works.”

Her first reaction after the hospital was pitched into total darkness was that the back-up generators would kick in and there would be light, and there was for an instant.

“For a while we had some light, and then, they went right back off,” she said.

“My whole entire active labor of pushing was in the dark,” she continued.

“From start to finish, we labored in the dark. When the lights went out, we’re like, ‘Yeah, everything’s on batteries, we better get going,’” she said.

At that point, Kalyn said there wasn’t a whole lot of time to think because this baby was coming whether the lights were on or not.

Her epidural was on a battery, but they were losing it. Because there was no power, there were no monitors to measure her contractions. The baby’s heart rate was being measured by a handheld doppler.

“So that’s why there was no option for me to wait really,” she said.

“It was just one of those things where you’re all hopped up on adrenaline. We just knew it was time to go and we started pushing,” she said.

What was she thinking as she was in active labor in semi-darkness?

“Honestly, I can’t remember because probably the lack of lighting and all that, but I wasn’t in active labor very long, and we got him out at 8:15 p.m.,” she said.

“We had multiple cell phone lights, because they were doing better than the flashlights that we could find,” she said. “So yeah, flashlights and cell phone flashlights are what I brought him into the world with,” she said.

Tiernan arrived weighing 6 pounds 14 ounces and measuring 20 inches in length.

Kalyn credits her husband and the support she received from the midwife and her team for helping her through this experience.

“My husband is a very calm person in dire circumstances. He’s a veteran. Him being able to keep it together, and him being calm really helped me, I know it did,” she said.

“And I was lucky to have not been experiencing one complication whatsoever between me or baby. So you know, that could have made a difference. We were lucky to have pretty much perfect circumstances other than electricity,” she said. “We all joked that we were having a home birth basically but at the hospital.”

About a half hour after Tiernan arrived, the emergency generators at the hospital came on, it was reported, although full power wasn’t restored until 1:30 a.m. Friday.

The Essicks were able to remain at the facility overnight.

“Kudos to the healthcare team and, you know, all of the facility workers, anyone who came in and took an extra shift to make sure people were safe. They were doing everything they could in their power to handle a very crazy, unheard-of, unprecedented type of situation. So we’re all very thankful for our midwives and nurses and doctors and just everyone involved,” she said.

“They were able to take care of us. They did a great job. You know, just some of those things like immediately weighing him and things like that happened a little bit later than usual.

But you know, we were able just to hang out skin to skin and feed and welcome him into the new world. Then I got wheeled over to postpartum at, like, 12:30, around midnight,” she said.

Reflecting on Tiernan’s arrival, Kalyn said, “Yes, he certainly has a birth story. We’re gonna tell it every year.”