Aimee Holt and James Woods with 8-day-old Naia.
Meet little Naia Miriama Holt-Woods, one of the few babies with the honour of being born on the first day of the new year.Her arrival at Helensville’s Birthing Centre at 2:38pm on 1 January was seven days ahead of her due date. For her mother, Aimee Holt, it was an experience that “no-one canprepare you for”, not even her partner James Woods, who has grown children from a previous relationship. James’ 35 and 33-year-old sons live in Australia. He says the birth of his daughter was quite different to the birth of his boys. “They asked me to hold the baby’s head as she came through, that was really cool,” he says proudly.
Aimee, who had a healthy pregnancy throughout, says she wasn’t keen on giving birth in a hospital environment, so she looked around for other options, and after meeting midwife Sharon Robinson, the couple took a couple of tours of the Birthing Centre in Helensville and“really liked what we saw.”
They enjoyed two nights of postnatal stay in the quiet centre before heading home to Stillwater.
As for having such a memorable birthdate, James says it’ll be nice for Naia as she grows to have the whole world celebrating along with her.