Golden Sun eXtra Your Local News Source, Mohave County, AZ

One of the Tri-State area’s newest residents may not have been Mohave County’s first baby of 2010, but Laila Ann Welsh has the distinction of being the first New Year’s Day baby born in the Bullhead City/Ft. Mohave/Laughlin/Needles area and Valley View Medical Center’s first birth of the year. She also brought her father home almost 3,000 from his job commute in Alaska. Continuing an annual Valley View tradition, to say that Laila is leaving the hospital with gifts is an understatement.

Young Laila was born January 1 at 1:26 pm, weighing seven pounds, two ounces. She is 20 ½ inches long. Laila is the first child for Jessica Gutierrez and Ryan Welsh of Ft. Mohave.

Gutierrez was admitted to Valley View on New Year’s Eve and had a relatively short labor on New Year’s Day..

“It took less than 45 minutes and wasn’t a huge ordeal,” said Gutierrez, a dental assistant and a graduate of Mohave Community College. Welsh is a Mohave High School graduate and was present as Dr. Richard Benedict, Gutierrez’s OB/Gyn, delivered Laila. The couple described Laila as active throughout the pregnancy.

“She tied a knot in her umbilical cord,” Welsh noted. He missed a large portion of the pregnancy while he was in Alaska for work.

“I was fishing in the Aleutians when I got the call that I was going to be a father,” he said. “I called whenever I was in port or on the satellite phone from the ship in the Bering Sea.”

Valley View’s volunteer Auxiliary again worked tirelessly with area businesses and physicians for months so that the family could leave the hospital with more than memories --- more than $1,000 in donated gifts. They include baby clothes from J. C. Penney in Bullhead City and Carter’s in the Laughlin Premium Outlets, and gift certificates from Target, Wal-Mart and Apple Hair Cutters Hair Salon. The Avi Resort and Casino donated a dinner and hotel package for the parents’ first getaway. Bullhead city dentist Mark White, DDS, donated diapers and diaper supplies in the shape of a cake. The Valley View Auxiliary and Auxiliary members also donated a handmade quilt, clothing, blanket, layette and other items. Two anonymous donors contributed gift certificates for a restaurant and a pedicure.

Valley View’s labor and delivery nursing staff donated a baby bassinette, while hospital administrators provided an infant car seat. Drs. Alan Barton and Maribel Quiñones-Guzman of Colorado River Pediatrics donated a baby seat and bouncer, while Dr. Naila Tariq, a pediatrician at Children’s Medical Center, is giving the couple a bath tub assembly, and pediatrician Dr. Mari Lou Reyes is providing a diaper caddy.

Dr. Benedict’s delivery was assisted by Joanie Gillespie, RN, and Kari Hernandez, LPN, two of Valley View’s labor and delivery nurses.

Following Laila’s birth Welsh spent the night by Gutierrez’s side on a convertible sofa. Valley View is the only hospital in the area in which all patient rooms are private, and all labor and delivery suites have overnight accommodations for family members.

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