BABY BOOM BRINGS JOY AMID COVID UNCERTAINTY

THERE haven’t been too many good news stories to arise out of COVID, but few would dispute that Geelong’s pandemic baby boom is one of them. It is near impossible to read the stories of little Emerson Dicker and Charlie Dew-Perkins without breaking into a smile. Their families’ journeys to parenthood are inspiring and the joy their arrivals have brought to the people around them is infectious.

And these couples are far from alone in their journeys.

All three of our maternity hospitals have recorded increases in the number of births coming through their wards year on year, with bookings still growing every month. The numbers point to more families taking the plunge into parenthood after reassessing and acting on what is important to them — with perhaps other contributing factors ranging from a lack of overseas travel delivering more disposable income and free time, through to opportunity and boredom in the months of lockdown last year.

But embarking on parenthood amid pandemic conditions is no picnic. Isolation from families, restricted access to health and support services and economic uncertainty have been part of these new families’ realities, adding to the already myriad pressures that come with new parenthood.

It will be fascinating to track this generation of COVID babies to see what, if any, effects the pandemic has had on their upbringing and the world around them. In many ways, these tiny bundles of joy are the gifts from the pandemic — a generation of figurative phoenixes rising from the ashes of our traumatic 2020.

It is a mighty burden to lay on such tiny shoulders, but the smiles of tiny Emerson and Charlie are filled with the hope of a community that there are brighter days to come.