Can you guess what the most popular baby's names were last year in Steinbach?

According to Vital Statistics, the most common name given to a baby girl in Steinbach last year was Abigail, followed by Emily, Sophia, Amelia, Hailey, Leah, Lena, Lily, Mila, Olivia and Rebecca.

For boys, the most popular name was Caleb and then James, Theo, Colton, Liam, Lucas, Thomas and William.

Meanwhile, there were considerably more births in Steinbach in 2018 than 2017. Janet Chobotar is Director of Health Services for Ste. Anne Hospital and Vita and District Health Centre. She says there were 473 deliveries last year, which is up from 421 in 2017.

Chobotar says there could be a few reasons for the increase. First of all, she notes Steinbach is a fast growing community with more young families having children.

Another reason could be that there are more family physicians today doing obstetrics. She explains in 2016 there were 8 of these physicians and today there are 12 and these physicians are accepting more patients.

One final reason for the increase is that the midwifery program has also seen an increase in the number of midwives that deliver.

As for the hospital in Ste. Anne, there were 140 births in 2018 compared to 147 in 2017.