A mother shocked doctors and midwives in a UK hospital when she gave birth to a baby who appeared to be of a different race.
Catherine Howarth lives in England but her family are originally from Nigeria. Her son Jonah, now three months old, has pale white skin, green eyes and brown hair – totally unlike his mother.
Speaking about the birth, Catherine told the Daily Mail, “The midwife looked at me and looked back down at Jonah and then at me again and couldn’t believe it.”
Although Jonah’s father Richard is white, the odds of a black mother giving birth to a white-skinned child are still a million to one. “We have been told I must have been carrying a recessive gene. My parents were from Nigeria and, for as far back as anyone can remember; my family have all been black,” said Catherine.
Although Jonah’s father Richard is white, the odds of a black mother giving birth to a white-skinned child are still a million to one. “We have been told I must have been carrying a recessive gene. My parents were from Nigeria and, for as far back as anyone can remember; my family have all been black,” said Catherine.
It is not unheard of for a newborn’s skin tone to be pale at birth and to darken within a few weeks, but this is not the case with Jonah, said Catherine. “Some children get darker after a few weeks when the skin colour they will have for life starts to become obvious. But you can see from the colour at the tips of his ears that Jonah is fully white.”
Although both Catherine and Richard were a little bewildered at first, they say the main thing is that Jonah is in good health. “The colour of Jonah’s skin is of no concern - Jonah being a healthy and happy baby is what matters,” said Richard.
