Westmoreland mom ‘truly blessed’ to deliver hospital’s first baby for 2025
Published:Thursday | January 2, 2025 | 12:10 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU
The New Year brought immense joy to the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital, in Westmoreland, as Leana Sewell welcomed her precious son, baby Tahir Whitelocke, into the world yesterday.
As the first baby born at the hospital this year, Tahir’s arrival was celebrated with great enthusiasm and love by Rotarians and friends of the Savanna-la-Mar Rotary Club, who presented Sewell and her son with a gift basket containing personal care items, marking the beginning of the new year with a sense of community and compassion.
“This is such a wonderful way to start the new year,” said Sewell, who was overwhelmed with gratitude to the Rotarians for their kind gesture.
“I feel truly blessed to have my son welcomed with so much love and support from the community,” she told The Gleaner as she cradled her newborn on the maternity ward of the hospital. “The nurse told me that my baby was the first one born at the hospital up to 10:00 a.m., but I was rather surprised to be presented with a gift basket from these people.
“I am really surprised, I didn’t expect to be getting anything.”
With the arrival of Tahir, at 7:53 a.m. on New Year’s Day and weighing 3.4 kilograms (approximately 7.5 pounds), Sewell, a 24-year-old resident of the wider community of Petersfield in Central Westmoreland, is now the proud mother of three boys. Her other sons are six and and three years old, respectively.
She said her experience with her older children had prepared her in delivering baby Tahir.
“The pain was horrible, but I was prepared. I had two experiences before, so I knew what to do in delivering a healthy baby,” Sewell explained while praising her child’s father for standing by her from the day he found out she was pregnant.
“He was here, but he left to come back. He has been involved in everything, from the point of conception, clinic visits and prenatal care,” she said of baby Tahir’s father.
Demerce Guscott, the immediate past president of the Savanna-la-Mar Rotary Club, said their decision to provide the annual gift baskets to mothers who give birth to the first baby born on New Year’s Day is part of giving back and fulfilling Rotary International’s seven focus points designed to improve maternal and child health globally.
He said Rotary International, through this initiative, aims to provide high-quality healthcare to vulnerable mothers and children, ensuring they have the same opportunities for a healthy future through education and training, including the distribution of clean birth kits and training health workers in safe delivery.
“So, we take it upon ourselves to do this. It is one of our yearly projects because at times expectant mothers have difficulties getting these critical items, so we collaborate with the hospital to find out the outstanding items and we provide them to the mother who delivers the first baby on New Year’s Day,” said Guscott.
“By doing this, we are giving back to the community. It is a small token but it can be stretched wide in meeting the needs of mother and baby,” he noted.