Port Moresby welcomes 27 New Year babies, Lae seven

TWENTY-seven babies were delivered at Port Moresby’s four major hospitals on New Year’s Day.
The Port Moresby Ge­neral Hospital recorded the highest births at 22 and three births were recorded at the Paradise Private hospital.
Another two were delivered at St Mary’s Private Hospital.
No baby was delivered in Pacific International Hospital.
The heaviest baby, a 3.75kg baby boy, was delivered by Mariana Maori from Eastern Highlands.
The second heaviest New Year baby weighing in at 3.7kg was another boy delivered by Julie Karo from Morobe province.
A jubilant Namodi Taina Namo told The National: “I am very happy that my baby is the first born on New Year’s day in Port Moresby.”
The Rigo mother from Central province deli­vered her baby at 1.30am.
The boy is the second child for Mrs Namo and her husband Nathan Namo from Alepa village in Rigo.
A baby girl born at 6.45am and weighing 2.6kg was the first birth in Paradise Private Hospital.
She was Cecily Pilon and Mathew’s second child whom they named Michelle Veera.
At the Angau Memo­rial Hospital’s labour ward in Lae, it was quieter on New Year’s Eve compared to the busy Christmas night.
After delivering 80 Christmas babies, it only saw seven New Year births between 1am and 10.30am with the lightest weighing in at 1.9kg.
Meti Ata, 30, from Kabwum and Selly Seka, 24, gave birth to twin girls, each weighing 3.3kg.
They were the only girls born in the hospital.
Opened middle of last year, the new Lae  International Hospital saw its first and only New Year baby of Chinese origin from Fan Yang, three hours past midnight.
 “It’s been a quiet New Year in the labour wards,” senior nursing officer Elisabeth Marcus said.
She added only two babies were delivered on Christmas Day.
Tusa Private Hospital checked in a woman, who after waiting for several hours, decided to return home and “wait for the right time”.