This year’s Christmas Day marked a double celebration for scores of families who welcomed over 589 babies born in 12 of the country’s 28 districts.

Ministry of Health statistics show that 312 of the babies were male while 277 were female.

The statistics further show that Mangochi topped the list with 79 babies born of which 45 were male and 34 female. It was followed by Lilongwe and Chikwawa with 57 births each.

Besides the three districts, statistics were available for Karonga, Nkhotakota, Dedza, Balaka, Zomba, Phalombe, Thyolo, Mwanza and Nsanje.

Statistics obtained independently from Mzuzu Central Hospital show that 28 babies were born on Christmas Day, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre had 31 births and Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe had nine.

“There were three males and six females. Interestingly among these there are two sets of twins, all females,” KCH spokesperson Winnie Yotamu told Nation Online on Tuesday.

There was no available statistics from 16 districts, namely Chitipa, Rumphi, Nkhata Bay, Likoma, Mzimba, Kasungu, Salima, Dowa, Ntchisi, Mchinji, Ntcheu, Machinga, Mulanje, Neno, Chiradzulu and Blantyre.

Commenting on the development, health rights activist Maziko Matemba said basing on the figure from 12 districts, there is a high probability that the births hit 1 000.

He said that paints a picture of the average number of babies born every day in a country with about 20 million people.

Said Matemba: “What it means is that our fertility rate is high, what has happened on Christmas Day can happen even on any other day. I hope all mothers are not under aged.

“The government should continue investing in the girl child education so that the girls are delayed from having babies; they [girls] need to be in school.”

In the 2018 Malawi Population and Housing Census, it emerged that the total fertility rate had declined to 4.2 children per woman from six in 2008.

Malawi recorded 1 628 Christmas Day babies in 2022 and 1 400 in 2021.

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