By midday on this New Year’s Day a total of 144 babies were delivered in Gauteng.
Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto is leading the pack with 19 babies born since the stroke of midnight.
Sugar and spice and all things nice trumped the rough and tumble colour blues, with 80 baby girls to only 61 baby boys.
Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa visited the Bertha Gxowa Hospital in Germiston on Monday morning.
“Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital had the most and here at Bertha Gxowa hospital there are three boys and one girl. It was wonderful to talk to the mothers. There’s a first time mother and the other has five babies. It’s the fifth one. So, all the mothers are happy and the babies are bouncing and healthy except for the preterm one and early childhood development is critical for these babies to be the future engineers. Who knows? Perhaps going to space will be as easy as getting an uber,” said Ramokgopa.
Meanwhile, the Western Cape Health Department has encouraged mothers to take keen interest in their children’s development, especially during their first two years.
Provincial Health Minister Doctor Nomafrench Mbombo visited Tygerberg Hospital to welcome New Year’s babies.
The first two babies to be born in the province rang in the new year at 00:01 at the Mowbray Maternity Hospital in Cape Town.
Mbombo has urged mothers to be especially active in their children’s formative years.
“The first two years of life, is important. A child needs to be cared for. Don’t neglect nutrition. Those that I spoke to indicated that they are also going to continue breastfeeding.”
Concerns about teenage pregnancies
KwaZulu-Natal health authorities have expressed growing concern about teenage pregnancies after 18 teenagers delivered New Year’s babies in the province.
47 New Year’s babies showed up – 23 of them boys and 24 girls.
Visiting Edendale Hospital at Pietermaritzburg, MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo says he is worried that teenage pregnancies are perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
Girls are prone to leave school after they have a baby. The youngest girl, who gave birth after midnight, is a 14-year-old from Newcastle.
