Pandemic baby boom?
Don’t expect stay-at-home orders to lead tomore births, experts say
A lockdown baby boom? More like baby bust. Between the stress of working from home, playing remote-learning teacher to the kids and keeping up with chores, no one has time or energy for, well, you know.
Research from Legacy Community Health, a Houston-based community clinic system, found that it’s unlikely there will be a baby boom resulting from stay-at-home orders. Clinicians at Legacy tested more than 2,400 patients from May through August and found that the number of positive pregnancy tests fell 29 percent compared with the same period a year prior.
“There are a number of factors that could be attributed to this trend,” Dr. Vian Nguyen, chief medical officer at Legacy Community Health, said in a statement. “Namely caring for other children while trying to work and take care of the home.”
Economic anxiety may also be another factor, said Dr. Rachel Robinson, the OB-GYN medical
director at Legacy Community Health.
“Families are intentionally delaying childbearing because of the economic impact,” Robinson said.
Floods and power outages can disrupt access to birth control, family planning services and other medical care, changing fertility rates, according to a study published by the Population Reference Bureau, a Washingtonbased nonprofit think tank. In the case of COVID-19, Robinson said, the disaster is still ongoing, especially as unemployment rates remain three to four times higher than where they were a year prior.
Another indicator that
the pandemic is lowering birth rates is the number of pregnancy tests done by Legacy, which fell by about 36 percent from May through August compared with the same period a year prior. Women generally don’t request the tests unless they have an inkling that they might be pregnant, Robinson said.
Robinson expects to see birth rates rebound in the coming months as vaccine trials continue and cities and states lift some of their COVID-19 restrictions.
“We’re going to see it start to go back up,” she said, “just based on the women coming in, wanting birth control or prenatal counseling and showing interest in trying to get pregnant.”