- Photo by Grevic Alvarado
While he may have been born a day too late to receive a visit from Santa Claus, baby Nathan Ameer Ramnath was greeted by another jolly grey-haired man, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH).
Born shortly after 1 am on December 26 to first-time mother Zenefir Deodial, 22, Ramnath was also the first baby to be born in the country on Boxing Day. It's why he received a visit, and gift, from the minister as he upheld a long-standing tradition. The Health Minister traditionally pays a visit to newborns on Christmas, Boxing and New Year's Day at their respective hospitals.
Deodial said she was expecting to deliver at the end of the month, but her waters broke on Christmas morning.
"Everybody thought he was coming yesterday but he said nah, he would keep up until today."
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She said her experience at the hospital was good, but the pain of labour was "not so good."
However, a day after lamenting the country's declining fertility rate, Deyalsingh appeared to make a jesting effort to combat that by telling Deodial: "They say it gets easier after the second and third one and then the fourth one and then the fifth one. So by five, it's no pain."
To the minister's joke, she quipped: "Mommy said the same thing, but I said, 'Like long time they didn't have TV.'"
Deyalsingh also visited baby Sophia Sinanan and her mother Beverly Beharry, 23, along with baby Elisha Huggins and his mother Kerdisha Duntin. Both babies were born on Christmas Day at SFGH. He was unable to visit them on Wednesday, as he was visiting babies at the Port of Spain General Hospital and the Mt Hope Women's Hospital.
Here he said the country's fertility rate continued to decline, going from 1.2 in 2023 to 0.9 in 2024. He said the replacement rate to keep the population steady is 2.1.
Deyalsingh was unable to say how many babies were born across the country for Christmas and Boxing Day.
