(Newser) – Robin Cyr heard the words no mother wants to hear after giving birth Saturday in Halifax: "My aunt looked at me and said, 'Your baby girl’s gone,'" Cyr told Metro News. Doctors, too, told Cyr her baby had died. But then her aunt started praying, and after 25 minutes without oxygen—and after medical staff had stopped trying to revive her—the baby started breathing. The surgeon "said it's a miracle," Cyr says; beyond that, it's not yet clear what happened. A review is ongoing, but Cyr agrees with the surgeon: "All I can say is, hand of God."

The labor was difficult, and the nearly 10-pound baby—whom Cyr named Mireya, a Spanish word meaning "miracle"—got wedged in the birth canal. She's now breathing on her own in the neonatal intensive care unit, with her oxygen tubes removed, and doctors are reportedly happy with her progress. Cyr, 34, told Metro on Tuesday she'd just seen Mireya open her eyes for the first time and would soon be able to hold her for the first time. (Canada saw another similar story last year.)

