A 22-year-old Bare Root, East Coast Demerara resident yesterday delivered the country’s first triplets for the year.
It was also the Georgetown Public Hospital’s first multiple-birth surgery in its recently-commissioned operating theatre in the Maternity Unit.
Popular East Coast Deme-rara dancer Saskia Richards gave birth via caesarean section and one minute apart to three girls weighing 1.5, 1.5 and 1.6kg, respectively at 2:48pm yesterday.
The operating theatre was constructed in the maternity unit and first commissioned on May 31st of this year as the Ministry of Health had stated that given the time factor in critical deliveries one was needed nearer. Previously pregnant mothers had to be ambulanced to another section of the GPHC if there was need for surgery.
The triplets were born prematurely as their date of expectancy was given as September 12th. However the GPHC has listed their health as stable and said that they were being cared for in the hospital’s newly refurbished neo natal unit.
In a press release, hospital Public Relations Officer Alero Proctor said “management of the GPHC and the staff of the Maternity Unit are proud of yet another momentous occasion in maternal health care.”
While the parents of the triplets were told prior to delivery that they would have three babies, father of the children 19 year old Odinga Payne had his reservations.
“We did the ultrasound and it said it was three of them but I didn’t believe because sometimes those things are not true so it was only when I saw them I believed” an elated Payne told Stabroek News last evening. He spoke on behalf of his family as his fiancée was too tired and still groggy from sedation.
The young miner, who works at an interior camp in Takatu in the North West District, said that while he was excited and overjoyed he was not shocked as his family has a history of multiple births. His mother, Lindener, Joy Lewis who has nine children, has two sets of twins and has other twins in her family. While he spoke to this newspaper he beamed and kept shaking his head as if still in disbelief. His sister Joyann had to be constantly telling him to “close your mouth before your teeth get cold and you fall off of that cloud you walking on.” Villagers were also present at their home to congratulate the couple and most of the men kept high-fiving the father commenting that for his age he “is a bad man.”
Saskia Richards has a three-year-old daughter while the triplets are the first children for Payne.
