KZN Health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital with one of the mother who give birth to New Year's baby.
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At 7am on Wednesday morning, 45 babies have been born in various healthcare facilities across KwaZulu-Natal, KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane said.
Of the 45 babies that were born, 26 were girls and 19 were boys.·
According to Simelane, by 9.30am, the above number grew to 55 of which 33 were girls and 22 were boys.
The first New Year's Day baby born in KZN, was a baby boy who was delivered at Hlabisa Hospital at 0.05am. There was another baby boy who was born at 0.07am. The birth weight of these two babies is 3.2kg and 2.7kg, respectively.·
Simelane said that at Hlabisa Hospital, a total of five New Year babies making it one of the busiest maternity wards since midnight.·
So far, at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital, four New Year babies have been born including three girls and one boy, while St Mary’s Hospital, in Marriannhill welcomed seven New Year babies, Harry Gwala Regional Hospital had six New Year babies; and Newcastle Hospital had five New Year babies.·
"To these newborns and their families, we offer our heartfelt congratulations. The birth of a child is a moment of great joy and responsibility," Simelane said.
The MEC said that they are committed to ensuring that the babies get the best start in life, including: early birth registration to secure their legal identities and the facilitating of registration for the child support grant for qualifying families.
Simelane said that while they celebrate these new babies, they cannot ignore the number of New Year babies that were born to teenage mothers.·
The youngest mothers of the New Year babies are four 16 year-old girls. One girl gave birth to a baby at Charles Johnson Memorial Hospital, in Nquthu and she was impregnated by a 22 year-old man.
The three other girls delivered their babies at Harry Gwala Regional Hospital which were fathered by a 16 year-old boy; a 20 year-old man; and a 21 year-old man, respectively.
"We also have two 17 year-olds, and four 18 year-olds who have given birth. While the ages of the fathers is not known, we do know that one of the 17 year-old's, who gave birth at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, was impregnated by a 26 year-old man," Simelane said
The MEC said that they are alarmed by these revelations, because these girls were all about a year younger when they fell pregnant.·
"We are worried, because when children or young girls fall pregnant, their lives are never the same. In fact, conceiving at an early age poses significant health risks for the young mother and her unborn baby," Simelane said.
"As the Social Cluster, we will need to intensify our efforts to deal with this scourge in as much as this will require the involvement of other sectors."
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