As many ushered in the New Year with fireworks and other festivities, there was a different kind of fireworks for Gauteng maternity wards. 150 Babies were born in the province by Saturday afternoon.
Announcing their arrival into the world. These are some of the babies born in Gauteng on the first day of 2022.
For some of the mothers at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, it was tough labour of love delivering their babies.
New mother, Zinhle Mzizi says, “When you were shooting fireworks I was in pain, it was so painful I was telling doctors I’m dying, to remove the belt. I didn’t enjoy the New Year celebrations at first when I was in labor but something beautiful came out after giving birth to my little girl.”
The best New Year’s present for this mother of two Thato Mokopo. “I feel happy cause it’s my first time having a baby on New Year’s Day. It’s the first in my life that something like this happens to me.”
Meanwhile, the Gauteng Department of Health has also encouraged pregnant women to vaccinate.
Gauteng health MEC, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi says, “Most importantly, what I wanted to check was whether mothers are vaccinated so out of six that we welcomed today only two mothers are vaccinated and we encourage them to go vaccinate because vaccine saves lives and the report that I got from the hospital for the past two weeks. There were 72 COVID patients in the hospital, mothers that were waiting to deliver so fortunately for this week there are no COVID-19 positive patients. So we are happy.”
The number of newborns is expected to increase as the day progresses.
New Year’s Day babies | 150 New Year’s Day babies born in Gauteng by Saturday afternoon:
