New Year babies born in Lagos were showered with gifts by Abimbola, the wife of Governor Babatunde Fashola, who visited hospitals and urged the mothers to exclusively breast feed for six months to ensure their survival.

At Ayinke House at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), she met with 32-year-old Dewole Olanike, whose baby girl was born at 12.01 a.m. weighing 3.6 kilogrammes.

There she also called on 27-year-old Okechukwu Elizabeth whose daughter arrived at 2.55 a.m. weighing 3.6 kilogrammes.

At the Gbagada General Hospital, Abimbola presented mattresses to Funmilayo Adio who, at 12.01 a.m., delivered a baby boy who weighed 3.5 kilogrammes.

A baby girl was born in the hospital at 6.55 a.m.

Abimbola could not hide her excitement at the Island Maternity Hospital, Lagos where two sets of female twins arrived the world through cesarean section.

The first set was delivered by Adunade Adebajo, a 27-year-old student of University of Ado-Ekiti.

Seven babies, made up of six girls and a male, were delivered at the Island Maternity between 12 midnight and 6 a.m. on the first day of the year.

Abimbola noted that the birth of new babies on the first day of a New Year is a sign "that the year would indeed really be blissful and bounteous, particularly in the homes the babies."

She urged families to encourage and support the new mothers in nursing the babies exclusively on breast milk in the first six months of life, and subsequently for two years, while also ensuring prompt immunisation against childhood killer diseases.

Health Commissioner, Jide Idris, said three newly constructed Mother and Child Specialist Hospitals are expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of the year to decongest Ayinke House.