Byron McDaniel, Gleaner Writer
Left: Matron Jacqueline Pennicook looks on as Antoinette Smith breastfeeds baby Sheniel, the first to be born for 2006 at the Percy Junor Hospital in Manchester. - CONTRIBUTED.
Right: Camela Soares, the first mother to give birth at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston for 2006, receives her baby from Sister Patsy Edwards-Henry. Also in photo is Jermaine Lynch, administative manager at Wynlee Distributors, who later presented a gift and a cheque to Ms. Soares. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
WALDERSTON, Manchester:
BABY SHENIEL Smith became an instant celebrity at birth as she was the first to be born in the maternity ward at the Percy Junor Hospital in Manchester for 2006.
The little bundle of joy was delivered ten minutes past midnight on Sunday, January 1.
Within hours of her birth, the bouncing baby girl, who weighed seven pounds at delivery was surrounded by a media team, a doctor and nurses on duty as well as Matron Jacqueline Pennicook, who presented her smiling mother, Antoinette Smith with a gift basket from the management and staff of the hospital.
"It is a blessing. I always wanted a girl. I came in at 8:30 p.m. went into labour at 10:30 p.m., and gave, birth, after twelve. There was no pain", said Mrs. Smith, a 25-year-old housewife.
Baby Sheniel is the second child for Mrs. Smith and husband Lloyd Smith, of Craighead, Manchester, who are also the parents of a seven-year-old boy.
Mrs. Smith, a former Sunday school teacher at the Craighead United Brethren Church, told The Gleaner that she was expecting to give birth on January 8.
Yesterday morning as cameras flashed, baby Sheniel clad in a red suit opened her eyes, stretched and yawned then revealed her toothless smile.
Her tiny hands curled into miniature fists, as she accepted her mother's breast, introduced by the matron.
