Boy, midwives are busy
TOWNSVILLE Hospital welcomed at least seven babies a day last year and while overall birth numbers in the region were steady there is a clear gender gap increasing.
The region’s largest public hospital recorded 2569 new arrivals in 2017 including 53 sets of twins and one set of triplets.
Overall numbers were down from 2611 bubs in 2016, but it was a loss made up for by Ingham Hospital which recorded 43 new arrivals in 2017 in its first full year back with a maternity ward since 2005.
Baby boys were again the dominant gender in Townsville with 1374 in 2017 compared with 1195 girls.
But the divide is growing with 179 more boys born last year compared with a difference of 99 in 2016.
“There has been an emerging trend over the past few years that have seen a plateau or slight decrease in births with an increase in the number of multiple births, Townsville Hospital Midwifery Unit manager Sari Holland said.
“Recent years have seen a higher number of boys with the boy- to- girl ratio typically around 51 to 49 per cent.
“Historically we hear about September being the busy month, however, in my experience in Townsville there has been a huge variation.”
Records shows that April was the most popular month for births in 2015 with 261, followed by 260 in June 2016, while our busiest month 2017 was in June with 246.
Little seven- week- old Cedric Kern was one of the bounc- in ing boys who made it into the 2017 club.
The first child for Star 106.3 radio personality Cliff “CK” Kern and wife Karolien, his birthday was supposed to be yesterday but instead he could not wait and was born via emergency caesarean on November 16.
“It was such a whirlwind,” CK said.
“We had no idea what we were doing and our nursery wasn’t even ready yet.”
Cedric’s rush to enter the world did have a silver lining with the new family of three able to spend their first Christmas together.
“He came home the week of Christmas which was so awesome,” he said.
Townsville Hospital and Health Service acting chief executive Kieran Keyes said it had been wonderful to see planned, low- risk birthing return to Ingham.
“The feedback I’ve received from this service is that local Ingham families have been so grateful to be able to birth in their local community rather than having to travel to Townsville,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Mater Health Services North Queensland said they welcomed about 700 babies including nine sets of twins.