Camperdown Hospital welcomes three new babies as new year births double

Three new babies were welcomed into the world at the Camperdown Hospital, which has seen a spike in births this year.

Winston Tesselaar, Nevada Hargreaves and Lahni Barry were born on Monday and it's the first time the hospital has had three new bubs in around a decade.

"We just can't remember the last time in 10 years we had three new babies in the hospital at once," Camperdown Hospital manager Janine-Dureau Finn said.

"We've had 10 new mums so far this first two months of this year. For the last three-to-five years we've had around five births in January and February and we've doubled that number.

"When you look at figures across all of Victoria birth rates are up at the moment.

"We know we have larger than normal amounts of mums booked in to birth in March.

"We have the most amazing team of midwives we're really lucky, they're very passionate about keeping birthing local for our local mums."

Weighing 3720 grams, Winston is the son of Casey Weel and Zac Tesselaar from near Simpson, Nevada (2555 grams) is the daughter of Skye and Andy Hargreaves from Camperdown and Lahni (3920 grams) is the daughter of Lisa and Jamie Barry from Glenfyne.

Winston and Lahni were born at the Camperdown Hospital while Nevada was born at the Warrnambool Base Hospital before being transferred back to Camperdown.

Camperdown Hospital Associate Nurse Unit Manager and Midwife Kirsty Mitchell said the three mums and bubs are happy, healthy and have been discharged from hospital.

The hospital has been busier than ever since taking over birthing services from the Terang Hospital.

READ MORE: No more births at Terang Hospital

"We've had heaps from Terang, our births have been really boosted by Terang women since it closed," Ms Mitchell said.

"We only have one labour ward so it's been a bit of a juggle but we can look after as many new mums as we need to."

Having a baby during the COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on new parents, but there have also been some positives.

"It is a benefit of lockdown having more time to spend with babies and less pressure to take them out," Ms Mitchell said.

"It's been hard too because they can't visit family and can't bring family and siblings into the hospital for visits, so people are going home a lot earlier than usual.

"They do have a better bonding with their babies."

The team at the small hospital are looking ahead to a busy year.

"We're quite busy, we have around six births booked in every month which is a lot for us.

"We're really lucky here we get to see mums in the antenatal clinic, they usually have the same midwife for the birth, then they go to home and we do home care visits.

"They get to see the whole spectrum, it's really nice and personal."

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