A 15-year-old girl is among 33 mothers who delivered Christmas babies over night in Limpopo. The teenager was the first to deliver a baby in the province, at five minutes past midnight at the Malamulele hospital.
Limpopo Health MEC, Dr Phophi Ramathuba visited the Mankweng Hospital outside Polokwane to check on Christmas babies and their mothers. She expressed concern that 10 out of 33 mothers were teenagers.
Ramathuba has called for law enforcement agencies to intervene in order to protect teen girls.
Eighteen out of 33 babies born over night in the province were boys while 15 were girls.
Last year, 50 babies were born on Christmas day in Limpopo, 15 of which had teen moms.
Christmas Day babies born in Limpopo:
Teenage pregnancy a critical societal issue
In KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane says young women continue to fall pregnant far too early. She was speaking at Newcastle Hospital. By 9:30 this morning, 73 babies had been born on Christmas Day, 40 boys and 33 girls.
The youngest among the mothers is a 16-year-old who delivered at the Niemeyer Hospital in the Amajuba district in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Simelane elaborates, “What today’s statistics are telling us is that girls are having sex at an early or very young age. In the case of these young mothers, they started having sex earlier, because when you give birth at 16, it means you are pregnant at 15-years-old. It’s a serious cause for worry in our communities. We want to emphasise that this is not acceptable.”
Simelane says teenage pregnancy is a critical societal issue.
“As a society, perhaps the time has come for us to review our beliefs and practices when it comes to matters of sexual reproductive health. Because we cannot always say this is a health matter because this is a societal matter. We need to stop regarding sex as a taboo subject and pretend it does not exist.”
In Mpumalanga a number of mothers of babies born on Christmas Day at the Middleburg Hospital have expressed excitement about the journey ahead. They have promised to prioritise the wellbeing of their children. Some are first-time mothers, including teenagers.
The province recorded 30 babies by midday, consisting of 15 girls and 15 boys. The first Christmas baby was delivered at Tonga Hospital in Nkomazi just after midnight.
The mothers at Middleburg Hospital were given presents by MEC for Health Sasekani Manzini.
Christmas gleams with new births:
Concern for high number of teen moms
Three of the 15 Christmas babies delivered in the Free State are from teenage mothers. The Free State department of health is concerned by the already high number of teenagers with babies.
All the babies delivered are healthy with no complications. Free State Health MEC Mathabo Leeto says there were no complications experienced since early hours of the morning. 32 hospitals in the province have been visited by government officials to welcome babies born on Christmas day.
“We have the three first babies in the province. The first one was at 6:00 in the morning. We had six males and nice females at a maternity ward of Itemoheng district hospital in Senekal. MUCPP where we are now, they delivered the second baby. And the third was at Universitas but in total we have 15 of them in the province. But what concerns us is that the three of the 15 are teenagers and we want to encourage girls not to give birth at that age,” says Leeto.
In Gauteng two boys and one girl were born just after midnight on Christmas day at the Sebokeng Hospital. The provincial MEC for health, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, visited the hospital’s maternity unit, bearing gifts.
Nkomo-Ralehoko said she was pleased to see mothers breastfeeding. She spent the Christmas morning assisting young mothers with their newborns.
Meanwhile, the health MEC said the department had suspended three nurses at the Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital in Vosloorus last month, for failing to provide adequate care to a minor.
This is part of efforts to the eliminate the mistreatment of patients in government hospitals.
31 babies born in North West
The Department of Health in North West says 31 babies were born on this Christmas day in various hospitals in all the four districts in the province. According to the spokesperson of the department, Tebogo Lekgethwane, 13 of the babies are females and 18 are males. Lekgwethwane says the first baby born on Christmas day in the province arrived at 00:15 at the Job Shimankana Tabane Hospital in Rustenburg.
