First baby born in Orkney's most northernly island in more than 30 years

Last week saw a very special toast raised across Orkney’s most northerly island, as the first baby to be born there in over three decades arrived.

Alice Traill Ford and Jorge Suarez welcomed their son on the island of North Ronaldsay last week – the first birth there for 34 years.

This week, Alice said they are both doing really well and praised Orkney’s maternity service for their support.

Alice and her family live in Costa Rica. However, she has strong links to North Ronaldsay visiting it for around six weeks each year.

Her grandfather, and baby Duncan’s namesake, was the former Laird of North Ronaldsay.

The Traill family bought the island in 1727 and the baby arrived in Holland House, which was built by Alice’s ancestors.

She referred to the house as “like giant museum full of artifacts that have been kept from our family.”

She said the island “really feels like home and this is where my heart and soul feel free.”

North Ronaldsay is most famous for its seaweed-eating sheep. Alice said, at the moment, just 51 people live on the island.

The island accessible from the Orkney capital via a twenty-minute plane journey or a two-hour-and-forty-minute ferry trip.

Alice was asked why she decided to give birth in North Ronaldsay, rather than at the Balfour Hospital in Kirkwall on the Orkney mainland.

She said: “It wasn’t that I wanted to have an Orkney baby, I wanted the baby to be born on this island, in this home, specifically.”

She said she felt “completely safe and sure of the decision”, choosing to “see the experience through the lens of trust and love.”

Alice said: “Through deep trust and intuitive guidance through my body, connection to the baby, and the support of the maternity team at the Balfour, we knew 100% that it was the right choice for our family.”

She explained that she gave birth to her first two children in hospitals, as it “felt safer”.

However, her third child arrived into the world “in the bath, at home, in the jungle in Nosara, Costa Rica”, with a midwife present for safety.

For Duncan, the family thoroughly prepared for the birth with the help of the maternity team – including what to do if midwives weren’t able to be there due to bad weather.

However, two midwives were able to be there for the big day – albeit with the help of a coastguard helicopter.

Baby Duncan arrived not long after 4am on September 15.

Alice said: “It all went really well. It was really fun, we were laughing with the team a lot and then things got serious.

“They were very, very supportive. It felt like a beautiful team effort to bring him earth-side.

“We just feel so grateful that the that support, because my waters had broken just a couple of hours after the last flight to the island.

“So, huge thanks and overwhelming amazement at the support that is available to these outer islands.”

Ahead of Duncan’s birth the family gave the North Ronaldsay residents bottles of whisky decorated with four-leafed clovers and “Groatie Buckie” shells.

They asked islanders to toast to Duncan’s arrival when a flag was raised at Holland House.

Alice said the family feel “loved and well-looked after by the community”, having received gifts of crochet, clothing, food and more.

As for what’s next for the family, they will be travelling back to Costa Rica in November.

However, they hope to divide their time equally between North Ronaldsay and Costa Rica and are planning to buy a house on the island “to put our roots down more substantially.”