Last year’s lockdown could mean a very busy January for maternity hospitals

Know anyone expecting this month.

The first lockdown was pretty tough on everyone. Everything was closed so there wasn't much to do except binge watch TV shows and bake banana bread. Some couples however decided on another way to pass the time which is why this month maternity hospitals are ready to batten down the hatches for the arrival of all the lockdown babies. From as far back as August 2020, Irish maternity hospitals have been preparing for a massive increase in the babies due to be delivered in January. The National Maternity Hospital in Dublin say that they are expecting a 10 per cent rise in new births this month as the lockdown baby boom takes effect. Speaking to Newstalk Mary Brosnan, the director of midwifery and nursing at Holles Street said;

"If you compare last January to 2021 coming... it looks certainly we will be up 10% on that month. But I wouldn't say 10% for the full year. I don't know if you can entirely say [it's down to COVID]. It's very much an interesting phenomenon... any time there's any big event, people kind of predict nine months later... and think whether that'll be related."

The increase in births this month isn't too surprising, given that there were small baby booms after storm Ophelia and The Beast From The East. Saying that, lockdown lasted for a lot longer than either of those storms so I expect we'll see a much bigger increase in births off the back of it. Usually is the January when most pregnancies start as late September and early October are the dates with the highest birth rates every year. Given that January is usually a popular month to become pregnant and we're in another lockdown I think the maternity hospitals will have to really prep for September and October this year because there's going to be a lot of babies.