An African Woman Once Gave Birth to Child With Blonde Hair and Blue Eyes

Stock photo of a baby's feet. Vitamin/Pixabay

Something extremely rare happened to a couple in London: A black mother and father conceived a “white” baby with blonde hair and blue eyes. Ben and Angela Ihegboro, originally from Nigeria, essentially beat incredible odds in giving birth to the girl, named Nmachi.

According to the BBC, there are three possible reasons for the occurrence.

They are “dormant white genes which entered both of her parents’ families long ago, a genetic mutation unique to her, or albinism.”

“Contrary to reports, doctors at the London hospital where Nmachi was born say they have not ruled out this recessive disorder which affects skin pigmentation,” the BBC report stated.

The color of the skin is determined by about 12 different genes that control the pigment, or melanin, that’s produced, doctors have said.

“We are all of us genetic mixtures to some extent and occasionally you’ll have a convergence of the pale versions of these genes in African Americans and African Caribbeans who have a mixed black and white ancestry,” Professor Bryan Sykes of the University of Oxford, England said in the report.

“But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. The parents are Nigerians with little known white ancestry at all.”

At the time, Angela said: “She’s a miracle baby. But still, what on Earth happened here?”

It was odd that “we had a blonde in a black family,” her husband said.  He added that he knows that “it’s my kid, but I don’t know why she’s blonde.”

News24 explained more about their case:

“He and Angela (35) were both stunned, he says. “We just sat there after the birth, staring at her and not saying anything. Eventually, the first thing I did was look at her and say, ‘What the flip?’. I was so shocked I even joked and asked, ‘Is she mine?’”

It’s a question many are asking but Ben is adamant there’s no reason to ask it. He believes Angela has been faithful and won’t entertain talk that Nmachi may not be his child. “Of course she’s mine,” he says. “My wife is true to me. Even if she hadn’t been the baby still wouldn’t look like that.”

Angela is also paying no mind to talk of infidelity. She’s just delighted her baby is healthy despite her unusual appearance. “She’s beautiful,” the proud mom says. “She is a miracle baby.”

World’s Smallest Baby Update:

A baby who weighed just 9.45 ounces at birth has finally gone home, making him the smallest surviving baby boy in the world.

A baby boy weighing 268 grams when born in August 2018 in a handout image obtained on Feb. 27, 2019. Keio University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics/Handout via Reuters

The baby, who hasn’t been named in reports, was delivered through Caesarean-section last August after he failed to gain weight during the pregnancy and doctors feared his life was in danger after his 24-week scan.

But the Japanese boy isn’t the smallest baby to survive—that title belongs to a German baby girl, born in 2015.

Doctor Takeshi Arimitsu, who treated the extraordinary baby, told the BBC he wanted to show that “there is a possibility that babies will be able to leave the hospital in good health, even though they are born small.”

Just 23 babies worldwide have survived after being born weighing less than 300 grams, according to the Iowa registry, only four of whom were boys.

The survival rate of babies born weighing less than a kilogram (2.2 pounds) is about 90 percent in Japan, according to Keio University Hospital. For those born under 300 grams (10.59 ounces), that survival rate falls to around 50 percent.

Epoch Times’ Simon Veazey contributed to this report.