Asante Ashland Community Hospital welcomes Southern Oregon’s first New Year’s Baby; last New Year’s birth before birth center closes this spring
By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news
Asante Ashland Community Hospital’s Family Birth Center is closing this spring, but first the staff delivered the hospital system’s first baby of the new year on Thursday, Jan. 1.
Cameron Hansen and Dallin George beamed as Dallin carried their newborn daughter, wrapped snuggly in soft pink in her carrier, into the Ashland Family Birth Center on Saturday, Jan. 3.
The Medford couple, engaged to be married in 2026, were returning to the hospital to say hello to the team who delivered Maven Jean George to the world, the first baby to be born in the new year in Southern Oregon at Asante hospitals in Ashland, Medford and Grants Pass. It’s a space the pair knows well and where their two sons — Boston, 3, and Easton, 4 — were also born.
And not only is she the first New Year’s baby in Southern Oregon, but her mom, Cameron, was the first New Year’s baby girl born on Jan. 1, 2000, to mark the turn of the millennium at Providence Medford Medical Center.
“It’s amazing,” Cameron said. “It’s so ironic, what are the odds?
“It definitely was the best birthday present I’ve ever got. Now I get to celebrate it with the cutest little girl.”
Cameron also expressed enthusiasm for the welcome addition of the color pink and numerous bows to a household fond of monster trucks and the color blue.
“I’m so excited about it,” she added. “The boys are wild. I’m like, maybe she’ll be the calm in the little storm of boys.”
Maven is the granddaughter of Ellie and Danny George and Corey Hansen and Randi Mountain, all of Medford.
Weighing in at 6 pounds, 10 ounces and 19.5 inches, she made her debut early in the morning at 7:16 a.m. Jan. 1.
With Maven’s due date on Jan. 6, Cameron’s mom, Randi, and Dallin had their suspicions that she might arrive on New Year’s Day like Cameron did.
“My mom, I swear, she jinxed it,” Cameron said.
A couple weeks before Maven’s arrival, Randi brought up the idea of Maven arriving on the same day as Cameron’s birthday.
Randi’s hopes came true, as Cameron awoke around 11:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve, “feeling a bit sick,” followed by contractions.
Randi noted in a phone interview with Ashland.news on Sunday, Jan. 4, that the same thing happened to her when labor pains started late in the evening on Jan. 1, 1999.
“She’s 26 and I was 26 (at the time),” Randi said.
Cameron messaged her mom and said she thought she was having symptoms of labor and soon woke Dallin up to say, “It’s happening.”
Cameron said she had been having some irregular contractions earlier on New Year’s Eve, but nothing that made her think Maven was on her way immediately.
Cameron’s mom was in the room with her during labor, which lasted about seven-and-a-half hours.
“It was really special,” Randi said.
Both Randi and Cameron praised the birth center team for the experience.
“The birth team is next level,” Cameron said.
The couple also noted the family had New Year’s Day plans to watch the Oregon Ducks play in the Orange Bowl, so following Maven’s arrival, Cameron said, “Okay, she’s born, turn on the Ducks’ game.”
An Oregon Ducks onesie was awaiting the family’s youngest Ducks fan at home, while at the hospital, one of the nurses gifted them a hand-crocheted blanket for Maven, Cameron said.
“They make you feel more like family,” Cameron said. “They come in, make sure you’re doing good and check in on you. You just feel really secure.
“Especially with having a low risk birth, coming here, it’s night and day,” she added. “I wouldn’t want to be thrown into a bunch of craziness in Medford.
“Ashland’s done all of my births and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Cameron shared the couple’s sadness about the looming closure of the birth center.
“It’s emotional,” she said. “It makes me sad that she’s going to be the last one that’s going to be born here on New Year’s Day ever.”
Asante announced their plans on Dec. 3 to close the Ashland Family Birth Center along with inpatient surgery this spring, with a later announcement by employees that it will likely close those services in May.
The birth center delivered 210 babies in 2025, according to Asante staff, with 37 of them from Ashland residents.
Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].
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