New Year's day started on a shrill note for the hundreds of babies born around South Africa.
Maternity staff were kept especially busy in the Eastern Cape's public hospitals where 118 babies were born between midnight and mid-Friday afternoon.
The province's health spokesperson Siyanda Manana said by mid-morning some of them had received a visit, a cuddle and a gift from the province's Health MEC Pumza Dyantyi.
In Gauteng's hospitals, 108 babies - 53 boys and 55 girls - sounded their arrival to the world.
At Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto, 27 babies were born, said the province's health department spokesperson Steve Mabona.
The Kalafong Hospital recorded the birth of twin boys.
In Ekurhuleni outside Johannesburg, some new moms were treated to pamper packs by government officials.
It was a tie in the Western Cape with the birth of 19 boys and 19 girls, with a 2.6kg boy arriving first in the province at 00:05 in Beaufort West.
It was busiest at Mowbray Maternity Hospital in Cape Town with seven girls and a boy keeping staff and parents on their toes.
Source: News24
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