Somebody needs to immediately alert these two women to the perils of Silly First Name Syndrome. In fact this whole family looks doomed. There are just too many occurences of SFNS for anything but tragedy to befall them.
It was sibling rivalry of a different sort at Nelson Hospital on Wednesday when two Nelson sisters gave birth to their daughters within hours of each other.
Recovering together yesterday in adjoining rooms, Dinah Roberts and Onycha Mailman couldn’t believe the coincidence. “It’s just too weird,” said Mrs Roberts, 33, of Ruby Bay.
“It was Dinah’s husband who said that it would be the same day in the same delivery room, holding hands, but it didn’t quite work out like that,” said 21-year-old Miss Mailman, who lives in Stoke.
It almost happened; Miss Mailman, who gave birth to Pheonix at 9am, was wheeled out of the delivery room as her sister was wheeled in to deliver baby Psalm.
Pheonix, already nicknamed Nixie for short, was Miss Mailman’s first child and weighed 3.72kg (8lb 3oz). Mrs Roberts’ baby Psalm was her fourth, and at 10 days overdue, weighed a more robust 5.42kg (11lb 15oz).
Mrs Roberts quickly dispelled any notion of the two sisters being able to draw comfort from each other in hospital.
“There is nothing comfortable about giving birth to an 11-pound baby,” she said.
Nelson Hospital midwife Sonya Kemp said she had never heard of two sisters giving birth on the same day before.
“Wednesday was busy for us anyway; we had seven births. It might have been because of the full moon,” she joked.
Mrs Roberts and Miss Mailman’s sister Kyria Warren said her mother, Jose Mailman, now had a brood of 13 grandchildren.
“In our family we have seven girls so poor Mum has been shattered running between daughters and now between rooms at Nelson Hospital,” she said.
She won’t be able to have much of a rest – another daughter, Salome, is due to give birth early next year.
