‘Christmas babies’ light up pandemic darkness in Iligan City

Aleja Abdul (in red blouse) and Lovely Rose Manosa (far right) deliver their healthy Christmas babies at the city hospital in Iligan City hours after the clock struck 12 on Dec. 25. Photo by DIVINA M. SUSON

ILIGAN CITY—It was already five hours after midnight of December 25 when their baby was born but Aleja Abdul and her husband considered their first born a “Christmas baby.”

Abdul, 36, and her husband Rommel were both overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who went home in March, the start of the lockdown to stop the spread of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Both lost their jobs but Abdul said she considered it a blessing in disguise because for the first time in their 10 years of marriage, they suddenly found lots of time for each other.

“We lost our jobs but when we came home in the Philippines, I got pregnant,” she said. “I never expected to deliver my baby on December 25, but it was then when I first felt the first stabs of pain,” she said. “(The baby’s) coming was a blessing to us,” she added.

Like Abdul, Lovely Rose Manosa said she did not think she was already in the throes of childbirth when she started to feel pain at 2 p.m. on Christmas Day.

When she realized she was already in labor, her husband immediately brought her to the hospital.

She said she never expected having her baby girl on a Christmas Day because her due date for delivery was still next month.

But giving birth to a 2.5 kg baby girl in good shape brings joy and hope to her and her husband in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We almost lost hope,” said Manosa, whose husband lost his job as ‘tindero’ at a convenient store.

“I was afraid I would also lost (my job) as cashier of a meat shop. I believe that having her, unexpectedly, on a Christmas Day is a blessing. Of all days of the year, she chose to come out on Christmas Day,” Manosa said.

She said that as Christians, she and her family had always considered Christmas a holy day for families who celebrate it. Having a “Christmas baby” is a blessing, too, she said.

Edited by TSB