Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

Shanika Barker (in bed), shows off her child, the first baby born on New Year's Day at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston, while Lyttleton Slater (left), marketing manager, Wynlee Distributors Ltd., and Matron Valrie Taylor Smalling, director of nursing services at the hospital, look on. Wynlee presented a gift basket to the mother of the baby, born at 12:27 a.m. and weighing 2.65 kg.

Spanish Town, St. Catherine

It was a special day in the life of 21-year-old Sasha Johnson Tuesday morning as she gave birth to her first child at the Spanish Town hospital on New Year's Day.

Baby Andre Anthony Frater, weighing 2.1 kilograms, came into the world about 2:37 a.m. and immediately changed the life of Johnson, who is of a Homestead address in St Catherine. The mother had high praise for her prince.

"It is my first child and I am overwhelmed with joy to see him alive and well. It's a feeling that I cannot fully express, but (this) is my best new year's yet."

Bonding

She said the hardest part of the birth was the pain accompanying the miracle, but, having seen the end result, she was pleased. The Gleaner visited the maternity ward and found mother and new born bonding as, in each passing word, baby Andre kept holding on to his mother's hand, so much so that nurse Denise Johnson echoed that this was certainly a child of love.

Johnson must have felt special that, of the 39 women on the ward, she was the first in St. Catherine for 2008. For the occasion, she received a gift package from Cheekies.

Sasha Johnson, 21-year-old mother of the first baby to be born at the Spanish Town Hospital in 2008, smiles proudly at her baby Andre Anthony Frater who was born at 2:37 a.m. yesterday morning. He weighed 2.1kg. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer