RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The ba­by came sev­en days late but when she fi­nal­ly ar­rived on Christ­mas morn­ing, her moth­er Can­dice Bap­tiste de­cid­ed to call her Melody.

Ba­by Melody was one of four ba­bies born on Christ­mas Day at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

In an in­ter­view, Bap­tiste said her labour last­ed for two days so when she fi­nal­ly brought Melody safe­ly out, she was ec­sta­t­ic.

“I came in on Sun­day night be­cause the ba­by was sup­posed to be here a week ago. I feel re­lieved that she is OK and I look for­ward to go­ing home,” Bap­tiste said.

An­oth­er proud moth­er, Re­na Ram­sa­roop, who works at the Min­istry of Health, said she too was hap­py to have a Christ­mas ba­by. Ram­sa­roop got a sur­prise vis­it from her hus­band Ra­jesh Ram­dass and old­er daugh­ter Karis­sa. Ram­dass said he was proud to have a sec­ond daugh­ter.

“We re­al­ly feel hap­py. This made Christ­mas spe­cial for us,” Ram­dass added.

Ram­sa­roop said she did not know the sex of her ba­by un­til she saw her for the first time.

“It was a sur­prise for us. We have lots of girl stuff for her,” Ram­sa­roop said.

Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of the South­west Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty Kei­th Mc Don­ald dis­trib­uted ham­pers to all the moth­ers on the ward, two of whom re­quest­ed anonymi­ty.