Couples celebrate BVI’s Christmas Day and New Year’s Day babies

By Kamal Haynes, BVI news Staff

The British Virgin Islands recently welcomed the birth of three special babies — two girls and one boy — who were all born on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, respectively.

BVI News spoke to the mothers of all three babies who briefly commented on their experience of delivering their newborns on specially recognised international holidays.

Birthing the territory’s first baby of 2021 was Marcia Jennings, who welcomed her fourth child, Brielle Mars Maduro, just before midnight on at 11:08 pm on January 1, 2021.

According to the information provided to our news centre from the BVI Health Services Authority (BVIHSA), baby Brielle made her debut into the world weighing seven pounds and 20 ounces.

Jennings, who is a St Vincent national residing in the territory since she was 10 years old said she was expecting the birth of her daughter a few days earlier.

“The doctor had told me the due date was January 3rd but I thought I was going to get her in December. But it didn’t happen and her father was telling me that the baby was going to born on January 1st and it did happen in truth, and she born very quick to me.”

First Christmas baby unexpected but well received

Also experiencing an earlier-than-expected delivery was Mrs Althea Davis-Prince of Lambert Estate, who welcomed her son Kemal Asim Prince at 10:45 am on Christmas Day.

Kemal weighed in at six pounds and seven ounces.

“It was quite unexpected as he was not scheduled for that time, but most welcomed and well-received,” the young mother told BVI News.

Second Christmas child a special baby

The territory’s final birth on Christmas Day last year occurred at 8:18 pm, when Mrs Densheka Ryan-Cato welcomed her daughter Kelsey Cato, who weighed six pounds and nine ounces.

Mrs Ryan-Cato, who is also Vincentian described the birth of her daughter as a blessing due to the many unique occurrences that continued up until the day Kelsey was born.

She said: “At first I didn’t even know I was pregnant because I had in an IUD (intrauterine device) and it had failed. And then I got to find out that I am pregnant with her. It was kind of difficult in the beginning at first because both of us were out of jobs because of the COVID-19 stuff, so it was kind of hard to process at the time. But while going along with the pregnancy we had accepted – me and my husband – and then we were looking for her like January 2nd but I ended up having gestational diabetes so we had to deliver her early.”

“It was 39 weeks we were supposed to deliver her but I just said to myself it would be nice if we had gotten her on Christmas Day because I live in Virgin Gorda and there wasn’t no boat coming up for me to go in and then I ended up getting her on Christmas night, so she’s a special baby,” Mrs Ryan-Cato added.

The three mothers all thanked the staff at the BVIHSA for the hospitality displayed during their time spent at the hospital.