It was a double celebration for Mr. and Mrs. Emmanuel Udeolisa of Awo Idemili in Orsu local government area of Imo state following birth of their third child few hours to their wedding last weekend.
Orient Weekend gathered that the couple who resides in Oba, Idemili South local government area of Anambra state had a double celebration on August 25 when the bride, Mrs. Chinaza Udeolisa delivered a bouncing baby boy and still made it to St Gerald’s Catholic Church, Oba where she eventually exchanged marital vows with her husband.
According the bride, the delivery on her wedding day was a huge surprise as her expected day of delivery (EDD) was mid-September, with the baby arriving almost three weeks earlier than scan results predicted.
“I was surprised when I started feeling dizzy and sign of labour three days to our wedding but I dismissed it as part of the pre-wedding planning stress because the doctors gave me up to September middle to expect the baby”, she told our reporter.
“I was still dismissing the signs up till the morning of our wedding, but as the makeup artiste was still fixing my nails, it reached the stage that I could no longer bear the pains”, she adds.
Following what concerned relatives view as troubled signs for the heavily pregnant bride, she was quickly rushed to the Amazing Grace Hospital at Ugwuagba Obosi where a medical doctor confirmed that her baby was almost popping out. Twenty minutes after she was rushed to the labour room, she delivered a bouncing baby boy, her third child.
It was further gathered that when the news reached the husband, Mr. Emmanuel Udeolisa, he raced to the church where he successfully pleaded with the officiating priest Rev. Fr Dennis Ekene Chukwudindu to grant them some extra time to enable the wife get cleaned up and prepare for the wedding. The priest, it was gathered, agreed to shift the weeding time by two hours, from 10am to 12noon.
“I am very happy at least the joy of a new baby and that of wedding is now complete,” Mrs. Udeolisa declared, noting her gratitude to God for such quick delivery. According to her, “it’s God that made everything possible because it is not easy that I arrived the hospital and, without wasting time, delivered safely”.
“I had planned on how to embrace the reception with my dance moves but I can no longer do that because this bundle of joy has already done all that for me”, she adds.
Orient Weekend gathered that the couple had been married, under native law and custom, for over seven years and blessed with two baby boys but were unable to perform their church wedding due to financial constraints.
The husband, a commercial bus driver, told Orient Weekend that he was happy that God granted his wife safe delivery on their wedding day. “It is really a thing of joy for us because we never planned it but God made it to happen. We give God all the glory”, he said.
An eyewitness to the drama told this paper that it was hilarious as patients, nurses watch the makeup artiste complete her work right at the hospital before the bride set off to the church for her wedding. “It was really interesting to watch. The kind of things you only see in a movie. We just thank God that both the baby and mother were safe and strong after the delivery to enable her attend the wedding.
Mrs. Chioma Uzoma, a close friend of the family adds: “It’s been God all through; we weren’t expecting this now and this is because, from what she told us, she will be due to deliver by September, but since the arrival, it has been merriment all through, as we have to dance in her place said Mrs. Nkoli, the bride’s sister.”