Diabetic mother delivers healthy 9-pound, 12-ounce girl

Candida King Bird, 38, the diabetic pregnant mother featured in The Oregonian earlier this month, delivered a healthy 9-pound, 12-ounce girl in Oregon Health & Science University hospital at 9 a.m. Thursday.

King Bird, member of the Ojibwe tribe, was included in a story about health problems affecting Native Americans in the Portland area. The story was the first in an occasional series over the next two months called "Invisible Nations, Enduring Ills." Upcoming stories will focus on diabetes, stress and trauma, maternal health and promising health reforms.

Because of King Bird's diabetes, her baby grew too fast and was delivered four weeks early by C-section. A team of about a dozen doctors and nurses attended the mom and baby during the delivery.

The baby was put in intensive care for 36 hours because of low-blood sugar, also the result of her mom's diabetes. King Bird, who was getting up hours after the delivery to visit her baby in intensive care, is recovering rapidly.

The parents named the baby Mishiike Meteh, which means turtle heart in Ojibwe.

"She is the best thing ever," says the father, Bruce McQuakay, 30, of the Cree and Tlingit tribes, who attended her birth. "It makes my day every day."