Christmas Day marked the arrival of 275 new daughters and sons in Eastern Cape government hospitals, making this a record breaking year for Christmas births.
This figure tops the 151 births recorded in the province’s government hospitals in 2017.
As it stands, the province’s figures are the highest in the country too, followed by the Western Cape at 76 births.
Sixty Christmas babies were recorded in government hospitals in Limpopo, while KwaZulu-Natal public hospitals delivered 45 babies.
Two sets of twins were born at the Frontier Hospital in Komani. A total of 117 males and 158 females were confirmed having been born on Christmas Day by the department of health by Wednesday morning. Of the 275, 35 babies were born through caesarean delivery and 240 through normal delivery.
Department of health MEC Helen Sauls-August congratulated the new parents and commended nurses and doctors for ensuring successful deliveries of the province’s youngest residents.
“We commend the effort put in by health personnel to make sure that the delivery of the babies is successful at public health facilities. We also congratulate parents on the birth of the new babies,” she said.
The O R Tambo district recorded the highest number of births at 85, followed by Alfred Nzo at 48. Forty-three babies were born in Nelson Mandela Bay and 17 in Buffalo City Metro. The lowest recorded birth rate was in the Joe Gqabi district, where 12 babies were born on this day.
Amathole and the Chris Hani district recorded 24 births while the Sarah Baartman district recorded 22 births.
When asked the age of the youngest woman to have given birth, the department of health’s spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha would not comment, only saying teenage pregnancy was a great concern for the province.
“There are youth dialogues to educate young people on it [teenage pregnancy].”..