Halle Berry gave birth to a healthy baby girl Sunday and “is doing great,” her publicist has told People magazine. This is the Academy Award-winning actress’s first child.

Halle Berry was happy to announce her pregnancy in September 2007, when she was already 3 months along, and she was happy throughout the following months, confessing how she had always wanted a child and how motherhood was a dream come true.

Berry and partner Gabriel Aubry welcomed their baby girl Sunday; the new mother “is doing great,” her rep told People.

She and Aubry, a 32-year-old Canadian-born model, met while shooting a Versace ad in Los Angeles two years ago. Berry was still recovering from her second failed marriage at the time. She told Oprah Winfrey on her show last year that she had almost lost hope when he appeared in her life. Then things changed for the very better: her faith in men was restored and a relationship and motherhood were to be looked forward to.

The 41-year-old Oscar winner confessed on the show that getting pregnant was no easy task and that she kept all 35 negative pregnancy tests before the lucky 36th.

At the time, Berry was also promoting “Things We Lost in the Fire,” a drama directed by Susanne Bier, in which she portrayed a mother-of-two whose husband (played by David Duchovny) dies unexpectedly. She said her role as the grief-stricken mom helped her explore her own feelings of motherhood and convinced her that she was ready.

“I think it validated that I was meant to be a mother because every day I dealt with the character as a mother and thinking as a mother,” Berry told Oprah. “It let me know that I must be a mother.”

Aubry has been quite radiant himself, telling Extra last fall that he had been “in preparation mode” for fatherhood for a while and that he had been studying parenting books.

Berry has said she and Aubry do not intend to marry, as they do not need a “piece of paper” to feel committed to their relationship and their expanding family.