28 babies born on Christmas Day

27 Dec, 2020 - 00:12 0 Views
28 babies born on Christmas Day

The Sunday News

Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
WHILE this festive season has been described as lacking the usual vibe, mostly because of the Covid-19 pandemic and failure by people to gather, a couple of women had every reason to smile after delivering healthy babies on Christmas Day.

Bulawayo’s major hospitals saw 28 babies delivered successfully via normal birth and through Cesarean Section.
Mrs Princenolia Moyo (33), from Magwegwe could not hide her excitement after she delivered the largest baby that weighed 4,1 kilogrammes.

An average baby weighs anything between 2,5kg and 3,9kg.

Sunday News caught up with Mrs Moyo as she was preparing to leave Mpilo Central Hospital and she could not hide her joy.

“I am very happy that I delivered a healthy baby of this size. Initially I wanted to deliver via C-Section but the doctors refused saying I had given birth normally before and must continue that way and so I gave birth naturally. I was in intense pain that is why I had opted to go under the knife,” she said.

While many women dread the whole process of giving birth and the scars that follow, Mrs Moyo said she was not in any intense pain.

“I gave birth naturally and I did not receive any stitches despite the size of my baby, so generally I’m fine,” she said.
Mrs Moyo who has three other children said it was not odd that she gave birth to a large baby.

“My first child was 3.5kg the second born I have forgotten but the third born was 4.5kg and now this new addition is 4.1kg. The doctors told me that this is because I am a huge woman myself so my children also tend to be big, it’s in the genes,” she said with a smile.

An official at the institution said it was not a rare occasion to have a large baby as the hospital once saw the delivery of a baby that weighed 4.5 kg at birth saying they were recorded from time to time.

Acting Clinical Director at Mpilo Central Hospital Dr Xolani Ndlovu said there were 15 births at the institution, a number lower than in previous years.

“We had 15 deliveries and 16 babies, one of the deliveries was delivery of twin girls. Eleven of the deliveries were normal and five were by Cesarean Section. There were seven boys and nine girls. The biggest baby was 4 100 grammes delivered normally and the smallest was 2 050 grammes also delivered normally. There were also two stillbirths recorded,” he said.

Added Dr Ndlovu;
“It was a surprisingly low number of deliveries; we usually get more deliveries in the region of 25 and above. We don’t know what we can attribute that to,” he said.

At the United Bulawayo Hospitals’ Lady Rodwell Maternity Home, a total of 13 babies were delivered on Christmas Day.

The biggest baby weighed 3,9kg while the smallest weighed 2,1kg, of the 13 deliveries, five were boys and eight were females.

Privately run Catholic institution Mater Dei said they recorded no Christmas births although they have two patients admitted to the maternity section.

Statistics from Bulawayo City Council clinics were not readily available by the time of going to print. In 2018 Bulawayo recorded 72 births over Christmas while 35 were born last year during the same period. – @NyembeziMu

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