Meet Bella – the first baby of 2018
LITTLE Bella Evans made her entrance to the world just a few seconds into 2018.
Timing her appearance perfectly to become the first child born in Greater Manchester this year, she arrived just 20 seconds after midnight yesterday at the Royal Oldham Hospital.
Her birth was the perfect start to the year for mum Antonia Houghton, dad Lee Evans and all the staff on the maternity unit.
At just 5lb 4oz she may be small, but she still managed to make a big splash, arriving six days early.
And it was also quite the relief for Antonia, 30, who had been in labour since Wednesday.
Lee said: “It had been a bit of a long one. We were all looking at the time because we were expecting her to be a New Year’s Eve baby, but she decided to leave it until just after midnight.
“She was 5lb 4oz so she is a little one,” he added. “She wasn’t due until January 6 so she came a little bit early.
“We are hoping to take her home but she has a rare Rhesus Negative blood type so we’re just waiting for a few more tests.”
Lee, 29, who works for an engineering company, and selfemployed accountant Antonia live in Oldham, and both have sons from previous relationships.
There were also celebrations on the midwife-led maternity unit at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, where little baby Yousaf – who was still waiting for his first name to be decided – was their first arrival at 5.04am yesterday. He was born to mum Saba Yousaf and weighed a healthy eight-and-a-half pounds.
The hospital tweeted: “Our first baby born in the #New #Year on our #MLU #birth unit #congratulations to Saba and her beautiful baby boy and thank you to #Midwife Charlotte.”
And midwife Charlotte Green tweeted she was ‘chuffed’ to deliver the first midwife-led unit baby of 2018, with a picture of baby Yousaf getting a cuddle from herself and midwife Jenny Crotch-Harvey.
The hospital also took to social media to thank those who worked through the New Year celebrations, tweeting: “Saint Mary’s thanks all its staff working shifts across the festive period. We know they are missing time with their loved ones to keep our services efficiently running and women and their newborns safe.”