Bumper crop of new year babies
NEW Year’s Day saw the birth of about 284 babies at various health facilities in Gauteng‚ according to the province’s health department.
“With about 98% of our figures confirmed‚ the Gauteng Department of Health wishes to announce that more boys were born on New Year’s Day‚” Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu said.
“We are very pleased to have delivered about 284 babies (131 girls and 153 boys). We wish them a long and healthy life‚” she said.
Soweto’s Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital delivered 54 babies – 30 girls and 24 boys‚ which included one set of twins and also triplets.
The first baby in Gauteng was born at one minute past midnight.
The Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Johannesburg delivered 26 babies – 12 girls and 14 boys.
A total of 25 babies‚ including one set of twins‚ were born at the George Mukhari Academic Hospital at Ga-Rankuwa north of Pretoria‚ nine of whom were girls and the remaining 16 boys.
Tembisa Tertiary Hospital delivered 22 babies (nine girls and 16 boys); Thelle Mogoerane Hospital delivered 21 babies (10 girls and 11 boys); Jubilee Hospital delivered 13 babies (five girls and eight boys) and Leratong Hospital delivered 12 babies (six girls and six boys).
Ten babies – seven girls and three boys – were born at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital‚ while Kalafong Tertiary Hospital delivered nine 9 babies – five girls and four boys.
In KwaZulu-Natal, Thabisile Hlatshwayo is counting her many blessings in the form of pigeon-pair twins. For her‚ it has been double the giggles‚ double the grins and double the trouble – and also double the joy.
The 30-year-old mom from Pongola in northern KwaZulu-Natal was distraught when she lost her prematurely-born twins a year ago. But those tears have been wiped away after giving birth to a healthy boy and a healthy girl on New Year’s Day at Pongola’s Itshelejuba Hospital.
KZN Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo expressed concern that among the expectant mothers in the hospital’s gynaecology ward was a 14-year-old girl.
Dhlomo said teenage mothers‚ by sheer virtue of their age‚ are neither physiologically nor psychologically ready to bear children, saying this often led to serious health complications which could result in the death of the mother or her baby – or both.
“It is very unsafe when young people fall pregnant at such a young age. If you’re a young person under the age of 18, chances of delivering safely are slim‚” he said. — TMG Digital