Eight families in south Trinidad welcomed new arrivals in the first hours of 2017 yesterday.
Among them was Linda Deonarine whose baby boy, Nile Zane, was the first born at the San Fernando General Hospital. He arrived at 1.07 am weighing 2.07 kilogrammes. However, the first baby born in the south west region was a girl delivered by Tenisha Thomas at 12.07 am at the Point Fortin Area Hospital.
Deonarine, who underwent an emergency Caesarian-section said the experience was "okay" and her family was anxious to meet the newborn. Another of the early arrivals for the year, born at 4.21 am, was Tenille who came 28 days earlier than expected to parents Selene Mahadeosingh and Keon Bruce. The baby girl, the couple's second child, weighed 2.66 kilogrammes.
Mahadeosingh said she and Bruce had returned home from taking her mother and brother back to their home on Saturday at around 9.30 pm when she began to feel like her baby was ready to be born.
"My husband was going to lime but I told him that something was happening so he should stay home. I went to my bed and lay on my side and it began. This birth was good, just four pushes and she was here," she said.
The new arrivals and their mothers were visited by Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh yesterday and were presented with hampers by the South West Regional Health Authority.