Chronicle Editor
Prince Sunduzani, Chronicle Reporter
A TOTAL of 30 babies were born at Bulawayo’s two biggest hospitals — Mpilo Central Hospital and the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) on Christmas Day.
Of the 30, 21 were delivered at Mpilo Central Hospital and nine at UBH with 19 of them being girls while 11 are boys.
Mothers who spoke to The Chronicle yesterday said they felt blessed to have delivered their babies on Christmas Day as this is a double celebration for their families.
The biggest baby born at Mpilo weighed 4,02kg and the smallest weighed 1,6kg.
Mrs Nomandla Ndlovu, who delivered the biggest baby, said:
“I’m thankful to God for giving me a Christmas baby. It gives me great joy to know that my baby shares a birthday with Christ and I pray that God guides him through his whole life. This is my fifth baby and the feeling is different”.
Another mother who only identified herself as Mrs Sibanda said: “This is such a blessing and I’m very glad that my baby was born on Christmas. The family is so happy and I hope my boy grows to be a good man like Jesus who dedicated his life to helping other people.”
Mpilo Central Hospital Public Relations Officer Mr Ozias Ndlovu said the youngest mother was 16 years old.
“We had 15 babies who were born without complications and six who were born through operations. There were three pre-term babies,” he said.
UBH senior nursing officer, Matron Roseline Vundla said: “The biggest baby was 3,8 kg and the lowest baby weight is a pre-term baby weighing 1,7 kg. No babies were born with complications. We also had a set of twins —a girl and a boy.”
For the past five years, an average of 30 babies were born on Christmas Day in Bulawayo.—@Princenkosy102
derick.khumalo