Rhon­dor Dowlat

Mt Hope Women’s Hos­pi­tal saw the birth of the coun­try’s first ba­by for 2018 but the moth­ers of the new­borns were all ner­vous of the coun­try’s crime cli­mate and how they will pro­tect their chil­dren.

They have all vowed to guide their chil­dren along the right path through their grow­ing up years and in­stil re­li­gious val­ues.

Jew­el Mur­ray, 27, of St Joseph, gave birth to her sec­ond child, a ba­by boy at 12.17 am at a weight of sev­en pounds five ounces.

Speak­ing with the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, Mur­ray said she wished her ba­by, named Ja­hané Arnold, all God’s bless­ings. The name, she said, was cho­sen be­cause of its mean­ing “Hold­er of the World.”

Lit­tle Ja­hané’s beam­ing grand­moth­er, Juli­et Mur­ray said she in­tends to see to it that her grand­son is guid­ed on the cor­rect path in life.

“Par­ents and all adults around must take bet­ter care of your kids to­day. Chil­dren must be brought up in a strong spir­i­tu­al path so that they can be con­scious of God, good and evil and stay away from evil,” she said.

Mur­ray’s sis­ter, Gaynelle wished for her nephew to be in­tel­li­gent, knowl­edge­able and un­der­stand­ing. His lit­tle sis­ter, Des­tiny, who is just four years is said to be at home wait­ing pa­tient­ly for the ar­rival of her new broth­er.

First-time moth­er, Ke­shana De­landro, 19, of San­ta Cruz gave birth to Andy King Phillip at 1.11 am. She said her prayer is for the crime sit­u­a­tion in T&T to “cool down.”

“It is a scary world out there and I just pray that crime goes down so that my ba­by boy can grow up in a safe en­vi­ron­ment,” De­landro said. 

“It is best for par­ents to talk to their chil­dren and show them the re­al­i­ty of life and tell them of the con­se­quences that they can face if they choose to go along the path of crime…it is time for par­ents to stop hid­ing the re­al­i­ty of life,” she said.

Ba­by Andy’s fa­ther, An­der­son Phillip, 27, wished his son, who is his sec­ond child, health and pros­per­i­ty.

Mean­while, proud par­ents Sheena Khan and her hus­band, Ja­son wel­comed the new ad­di­tion to their fam­i­ly, their third child, Emi­ly Khan, who was born at 1.21 am weigh­ing five pounds 15 ounces.

The Khan’s said lit­tle Emi­ly was their New Year wish come true.

The East­ern Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty wel­comed the first ba­by to be born at the San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal at 2.15 am. The healthy ba­by boy, who weighed eight pounds, was born to Keisha John­son from Matu­ra.

Ronald Tsoi-a-Fatt, chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer, was on hand to con­grat­u­late John­son and present her with a ham­per filled with ba­by prod­ucts.

John­son thanked the staff at the San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal for the safe de­liv­ery of her ba­by boy.

Two ba­bies were born at the San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal and at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, five ba­bies were born.