Workers' Party MP Lee Li Lian gives birth to a girl called Karys

SINGAPORE - Worker's Party MP Lee Li Lian, 35, gave birth to a girl on Tuesday morning.

Get the full story from The Straits Times.

The new mother posted the news of the arrival of her newborn daughter on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon.

The baby, named Karys, was born at Mount Alvernia Hospital and weighed 3.02kg, according to The Straits Times.

Ms Lee, the MP for Punggol East, wrote on Facebook in Mandarin: "After going through an unstable pregnancy, enduring frequent pregnancy rash, and after nine months of waiting, we finally welcomed our daughter's arrival today!"

She is the second MP to have given birth in recent years. Ms Sim Ann, Minister of State for Education as well as Communications and Information, gave birth to her third child in 2011.

 Here is her full Facebook post in English:

Welcome to the world, little one! There is no doubt that she is going to be the most amazing and gorgeous part of our lives. We are still cracking our head on her Chinese name. Anyway we are given 2 weeks to register her birth  I would like to take this opportunity to thank many residents who had offered their best wishes and advice during this period. Going forward, like many mothers, I will have many challenges to face as well and like them, I will persevere to get through these obstacles!

The first good deed baby Karys did was to donate her cord blood to the Singapore Cord Blood Bank (SCBB).

By donating, we would help to build up a more comprehensive public repository of cord blood units. This is available to anyone who requires stem cell therapy/ transplant. Instead of discarding it away, the best way to go about it is to donate. Of course, you can also choose to deposit it in a private bank for your personal use.

The donation procedure is not tough. Mother goes through a detailed maternal risk questionnaire weeks before birth, collect about 3 tubes of blood on the day of delivery, sign a consent form and that's it. SCBB will then assess the suitability of the cord blood and inform parents in writing in about 2 weeks.

Sadly, the awareness of SCBB is quite low. Imagine if everyone makes the decision to donate their baby's cord blood at birth, people in need of transplants would have much better chance of finding a suitable match.