Baby girl born to lesbian couple at Belfast hospital

A lesbian couple whose baby girl was born in the in the early hours of New Year’s Day have declared that love “is the most important thing”.

Speaking just a few hours after Baby McErlane came into the world at 3.50am at the Mater Hospital in Belfast, Michele Devlin said that for her and her partner Emma McErlane, "we think that love and security is the most important thing for our baby and in our lives now".

“All that other stuff that people go on about is irrelevant really,” comments Michele.

Not yet named

Born weighing 8lb 12oz’s, Baby McErlane has not been named yet but like any proud parents of a newborn, Emma and Michele are glad everyone is fine and healthy after the birth.

“Everybody is great,” says Michele, recounting how she and Emma drove to hospital to the sound of the fireworks as the clocks struck midnight.

Baby McErlane was born at the midwife-led maternity unit at the Mater Hospital, where Michele says the staff were “absolutely fantastic”.

“It’s the first baby for us both but it will be a week or two before we have a name - there aren’t any contenders yet.

“We had to be a bit more intentional about having a baby than a heterosexual couple would be, so we got a donor, and the rest as they say is history.

“Our baby wasn’t the first to be born in the new year but we were the first at the Mater, and everything went fantastic.

“We both come from big families and they’re absolutely supportive and thrilled to bits.”