A couple's battle with bureaucracy over getting the husband into Canada may be ongoing, but thanks to some web-based technology he was at least able to witness the birth of their first child last week.
While Prince George resident Robyn Omayone, 32, was giving birth to Weston Skyler Omayone at the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia, Tony Omayone, 42, was able to witness most of the 16-hour delivery via a Skype connection from Vienna, Austria.
When Skyler began kicking, Robyn had made a point of packing along her laptop, complete with webcam, to the delivery room and relied on the hospital's WiFi to make the connection.
"We just set up my laptop on one of the tables that wheels around and made it really high so that he would be able to see everything," Omayone said Monday.
Communicating via Skype has become old hat for the couple, who met through an online matchmaking service about four-and-a-half years ago. Robyn said Tony hails from Nigeria and is seeking asylum in Canada after being unjustly implicated in the blowing up of an oil rig.
They were married in February in Vienna but Tony remains in legal limbo in the European country. The only time he left the couch for an appreciable time during the delivery was to see if an important document in his bid to be allowed into Canada had arrived at the post office.
Although she said it was no substitute for her husband actually being there, the connection made for a good plan B.
"It worked fabulous," Robyn said. "He was able to see everything and he was able to hear everything that was going on and we were able to talk back and forth."
The birth had some complications and on a couple of occasions, Tony was so worked up he moved out of the camera's sight to recompose himself after breaking down and crying. But Robyn's sister was also in the delivery room, as was her mother, and eased Tony through the tense moments.
"That was very hard for Tony to deal with because he couldn't be in the room to hold me or comfort me," Robyn said. "A lot of the times when something went on, people were running around and trying to do stuff and he was scared, he didn't know what was going on.
"So my sister would sit down and explain it to him, 'this is what's happening, this is what's going on, don't worry, she's in good hands.'"
The youngest Omayone arrived at 12:47 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 27, in good health, weighing seven pounds 14 ounces, and a length of 20 inches.
The couple, meanwhile, continue to work to make their relationship a lot less long distance and after several setbacks related to changes in documents and policies, Robyn has reason to believe the corner has been turned and Tony will soon be in Canada.
