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First baby of millennium unwell

WELLINGTON: The first born of the millennium, a baby boy, is unwell and has been transferred to a special hospital unit, New Zealand media reported on Sunday.

The boy weighing 4.2 kg was born at 12.01 a.m. local time on January 1, 2000, in Auckland's Waitakere Hospital.

"The mother is well but soon after the delivery of the baby problems were identified and the baby was transferred to another hospital for essential treatment," Waitakere Hospital said in a statement.

The baby was delivered normally after the mother went into labour spontaneously, the hospital said earlier.

Doctors said the boy was poorly but stable, the Sunday News reported.

The family has requested total privacy and has asked that no details of the baby's conditions be released. He has not yet been named. The boy is the family's fourth child and he has three sisters.

The first baby girl of the millennium, Tupou Ta-ane Fetuani, is the seventh child of Tongan parents Milika and her husband Sifoni Fetuani. She was born at 12.10 a.m. at National Women's Hospital in Auckland.

She is the first in the family to be born in New Zealand, as her siblings were all born in Tonga.

Hallum Osborne, the second boy born this century, arrived at 12.08 a.m. at Palmerston North hospital, north of Wellington, to parents Alicia and Nick Osborne.

The New Zealand contender for the status of first born is yet to be cross-checked with contenders from the Pacific nations of Kiribati and Tonga which entered the New Year an hour earlier than New Zealand.-Reuters