Norton Sound Regional Hospital celebrated its first baby of 2025 with the arrival of Olga Margaret Douglas-Charles.
The family traveled from Koyuk to Nome on December 27 to prepare for the birth. To their surprise, Douglas-Charles arrived a week early and with help from Norton Sound’s Maternal and Child Health program, she was born at 7:12 a.m. on January 6 at a healthy 6 pounds and 11 ounces.
Her mother, Danita Douglas, encountered complications early in the pregnancy and called her newborn a “warrior in the storm.”
Norton Sound Health Corporation’s Public Relations Manager, Reba Lean, announced the birth in a press release.
“Every new year, we love to celebrate the first baby born at Norton Sound Regional Hospital,” Lean said. “The fun of recognizing the title of the year’s ‘first baby’ has its roots in old traditions, but it’s even more special getting to know our own region’s first of the year.”
Douglas-Charles bears the name of both of her grandparents, Margaret Douglas and the late Olga Charles. Her father, Dwayne Charles, said naming the baby after his mom was “like her coming back into the world”.
Douglas-Charles joins a large family in Koyuk. Her father now has 12 children and her mother has four. Her siblings in Koyuk are Kalyn Daniels, 24, Emmanuel Charles, 22, Murphy Charles, 17, Levi Charles, 15, Echo Charles, 13, Stason Douglas, 12, Elmer Douglas, 8, and Hannah Hammond-Douglas, 6.
On her mother’s side her grandparents are Darin Douglas and Margaret Douglas. On her father’s side her grandparents are the late Sankey and Olga Charles.
Lean said Norton Sound Regional Hospital delivers around 80 babies every year. The facility has been recognized nationally for its excellence in maternity practices, earning a high score of 91 on the Center for Disease Control’s “Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care” survey.
