A baby boy and girl born at exactly the same time have won the title of Whittington Health’s first Christmas Day babies.
Two families welcomed their best Christmas present arriving into the world at 2.26am on Christmas morning.
Anastasia and a new addition to the Luck family have joined the exclusive club of babies born on December 25.
The Lucks' new baby is yet to be named, but will have the Christmas-themed middle name of Santos.
Whittington Health’s maternity ward was busy on Christmas Day with 17 midwives, five doctors, two anaesthetists, operating department practitioners, healthcare support workers, domestic staff, and community staff on the day shift alone supporting women giving birth at the hospital and in their own homes.
All babies born on Christmas Day at the Magdala Avenue hospital received a handmade red and white striped knitted hat.
Babies born too small and too soon admitted to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit received a little Christmas stocking stuffed with small treats.
Midwife Jane Laking said: “You could really mull over missing out on Christmas Day by being at work. But when you become a midwife, that’s what you sign up for. You’ve just got to make the best of it."
The Whittington Trust's maternity staff will have something else to celebrate in the new year, as in November Islington Council approved plans to refurbish the department.
More than £100 million will be spent on improvements to the Kenwood Wing to match the facilities with the high standard of service that the team already provide.
Work is expected to begin on phase one in the first half of 2023.
Jane said having a baby at unexpected times and not where you had planned is not something that has changed since Mary’s delivery in the stable.
“People think no one will come to the maternity department on Christmas Day, but you can’t really control when baby will come,” she said.
“When you work for the NHS, you do what you have to do, and, as my dad used to say when I would leave for work on Christmas: ‘Well, someone had to deliver baby Jesus.'”
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