Meet Bahrain's New Year babies

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

The first Bahraini baby of 2021 was a boy, and he arrived an hour after midnight at the Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC). Born to Sayed Hassan Hashem and his wife Sherifa Jaafar Mohsen, the baby boy was the first amongst 11 new babies born in Bahrain on 1 January 2021.

During the first 12 hours of 2021, Bahrain was blessed with 11 babies - six boys and five girls.

Following the first boy, was a baby girl - the second birth of the New Year. She was born to Ali Maneh Ali and his wife Asma Saleh Moqbel. The baby girl opened her eyes at 1.09 am at SMC in Suite 308.

Next Khaled Ibrahim Ali and his wife Zainab Syed Hassan got their moment at 1.40 am, also in the form of a baby girl.

A few hours later, a baby boy followed her. Jaafar Ali Shaban and his wife Fatima Syed Hussein welcomed him to the world at 4.36 am and at 6.20 pm Muhammad Ibrahim and his wife Afrah Mirza Radhi were also blessed with a baby boy.

Meanwhile, according to UNICEF, the first baby of 2021 was from Fiji in the Pacific. The last baby of the day was welcomed by the USA. UNICEF says an estimated 371,504 babies were born around the world on New Year’s Day.

Globally, over half of the 371,504 births are estimated to have taken place in 10 countries: India (59,995), China (35,615), Nigeria (21,439), Pakistan (14,161), Indonesia (12,336), Ethiopia (12,006), the United States (10,312), Egypt (9,455), Bangladesh (9,236) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (8,640).

In total, an estimated 140 million children will be born in 2021. Their average life expectancy is expected to be 84 years.

“The children born today enter a world far different than even a year ago, and a New Year brings a new opportunity to reimagine it,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “Children born today will inherit the world we begin to build for them—today. Let us make 2021 the year we start to build a fairer, safer, healthier world for children.”