Who's Born First?

Borough President Marty Markowitz paid a visit to Brooklyn's other first born on Tuesday. Markowitz offers best wishes to Mabel John and her bouncing baby boy. Kathryn Kirk

It may not be as amusing as the classic Abbott & Costello "Who's On First?" routine, but the "Who's Born First?" in Brooklyn in 2007 controversy is indeed more contentious.

It seems Brookdale and Long Island College hospitals are caught up in a debate over which hospital has bragging rights to the first baby born in the New Year in Kings County.

Officials at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, just a few miles north of Canarsie at Rockaway Parkway and Linden Blvd., claim that at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 4 lb. 4 oz. Odunayo Muhammed made a premature appearance making him the first baby born in New York City in 2007. The 17-inch long boy is the son of proud parents Christiana and Abdulganeyu Muhammed, Nigerian immigrants who came to Brooklyn five years ago.

Meanwhile, administrators at Long Island College Hospital in downtown Brooklyn assert that Oladipupo Oluwagbemiga, a 6 lb. 10 oz. boy born to Nigerian immigrants Mabel John and Shola Karimu, also made his debut at the stroke of midnight.

Christiana and Odunayo Muhammed

Added to the Brooklyn controversy was New York Downtown Hospital in Manhattan which de-clared that Yuki Lin, a premature girl who weighed 6 pounds and 6 ounces and, at 19 inches long, was two inches longer than Odunayo, was the first baby born in the city as the New Year began.

Yuki's proud parents are 22-year-olds celebrating their first birth. The parents were born in China and live in Chinatown. Neil S. Friedman

Medical staffers and others from Brookdale Hospital, who helped deliver what they claim was the first baby born in the city in 2007, surround proud mom Christiana and baby Odunayo Muhammed.

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