Leap year babies put a smile on mothers’ faces

IF the proud mums of babies delivered yesterday wanted to know just how special a club their children had entered by virtue of being born on February 29, they only had to look at the glitz and glamour of last night’s Oscar ceremony in Hollywood.

William A Wellman, the man whose film Wings won the very first Academy Award for Best Picture in 1928, was a leap year baby.

So too were the French painter Balthus, the Italian composer Rossini, and Pope Paul III, the pontiff who excommunicated King Henry VIII of England in 1538 when Henry divorced his wife Catherine of Aragon.

Leap- year babies include a host of actors, architects, astronomers, composers, scientists and more.

And more than 160 Irish children were expected to have joined the February 29 club by midnight.

While the final count of leap year children won’t be known until later today, hospitals around the country were last night reporting plenty of deliveries.

The first baby born in Cork’s Erinville Hospital yesterday was Lisa Okpozae, from Mallow, who was delivered by proud mother Grace at 12.35am.

In the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, meanwhile, a baby girl was delivered at 1.15am, while in the National Maternity Hospital, mums Martina Flanagan and Silpa Talbot also gave birth in the early hours of the morning.

Babies born yesterday will receive a special e100 gift from the State to mark the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Family. The move was announced last week by Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Coughlan.

The payments will be made through the maternity hospitals, while mothers who gave birth at home can contact the Department of Social and Family Affairs directly.