At about 1:00 p.m. on November 13, a baby boy weighing 3.12kg was born on the Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark. This is the first baby delivered during the mission codenamed "Mission Harmony-2022", and also the seventh one born on this hospital ship.
Li Ying, the baby's mother, and her husband Wu Fan have worked in Jakarta for nearly 8 years. They planned to return to China to give birth recently, but failed for various reasons.
On November 2, the couple learned that the hospital ship Peace Ark would visit Jakarta, and then they got the idea to apply for giving birth onthe hospital ship. After consultation and contacts, Li Ying was finally hospitalized on the ship and gave birth to a baby boy at noon on November 13.
Zhou Quan, director of the hospital aboard the Peace Ark, introduced that Li Ying, the pregnant female at 35, has undergone comprehensive prenatal examination after getting admitted to the hospital on November 11, and the doctors determined to make the cesarean operation.
"Warship is part of national territory,” said Wu Fan, the baby’s father, by adding that his son is born on the Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark, which equals to being delivered on the motherland. "We namedour son 'Fangzhou' (ark in English) to help him remember the hospital ship Peace Ark and those Chinese military doctors forever."
Since its commission in 2008, the hospital ship Peace Ark has carried out the Mission Harmony journeys for multiple years. The diagnosis and treatment service overseas filled with the desire for peace and respect for the life of the Chinese people and its military, demonstrated the open-up and confidence of the PLA Navy, and embodied China’s responsibility as a major country in the new era.
