First baby of the year stories

My wife's an OB and there is even a medical culture feeding that first baby of the New Year story. Hospitals can be competitive with it and you better believe doctors who are working that night at least think about getting the delivery. The first one here this year came two seconds after midnight, which my wife said almost certainly means it was a C-section and thus planned in some way and shouldn't count (it was at a hospital she doesn't work at). Whether the media or hospitals feed that first baby fire or they feed off each other, who knows, but they get a kick out of it.

And there are other problems with the story that can occur that are much worse than a teen mother, such as very premature babies or even mortality. But generally, babies make people feel good, especially with an even fresher start of a new year or a new decade so these stories will always be there.

 

you only cover us when we have c-sections

 

And then, you only put it in the D-section.

 

in just so we can have three bouncing elephants in a row

 

Ours came a few years ago. 16-year old mom, father was 20, and an illegal immigrant, which makes the thing bad on two counts.

One of our editors tried to prevent the story from happening, saying to just go with a photo, because of all the things wrong with it. Editorial got into a nice long debate, and in the end they ran the full story...what there was of it. Decision was that if we are going to be true to the creed that it's our job to report, not to censor what is or isn't news.
I'm glad I'm in sports these days.

 

We had plans for one of those first baby of millenium stories back when 2000 was nearing (yes, I know 2001 is actually the start of the millenium).
The paper was actually one of the big sponsors for that year's event, which included the usual haul of gifts from businesses and organizations around town.
Everything is set a couple weeks before New Year's and we're just waiting for nature to take its course when we learn that two -- not one, but two -- of the mothers due right around Jan. 1 are 14 or so and, yes, unmarried.
Hilarity ensues as a discussion erupts about whether we should stick with the possiblity of an underage, unmarried mother or go the more traditional route.
Mother Nature saved us by having a married woman (a teacher at the local Catholic elementary, I believe) step up.
Wound up doing a story on her, and another on the last baby born in 1999 since his mom was still at the hospital just a few doors down.
By the way, one of the underage moms threw a mild hissy fit when she found out that not only was she not the mother of the millenium baby, but also that she wouldn't get the free stuff.

 

Tally Atwater says you should interview the parents of the "real" new year's baby. It could lead to doing a prison interview during a riot and be your big break.

 

Unmarried interracial couple are the parents of the first kid born in my town this year. The reporter writing the story didn't know if the dad would show up at the hospital for the interview.

 

Apparently, only two babies have been born in this area at all since the new year began. The first was on Jan. 2, the other on the 5th. Nobody in here has talked about doing a story. I don't think they're going to after the three-year, underage, unmarried mom streak.

 

Whitey's always making it about him.