Different Twist

Old Story With A Different Twist

Stories of women giving birth to babies on the back seats of taxis en route to hospitals are almost regular features of news papers in metropolitan countries.

But even in the South Pacific, it’s not often that a mother, en route to hospital, gives birth to a baby in a sailing canoe.

It happened in the Cook Islands early in December, though, when a Penrhyn Island woman, Tetuanui, gave birth to twins while travelling in a sailing boat across Penrhyn’s lagoon.

Tetuanui was en route from Tautua Village, on the eastern side of the atoll, to Omoka Village, on the western side, where a dispensary is situated.

The lagoon, on this stretch, is about eight miles wide.