A baby boom is expected after the Covid lockdown, according to the Director of Midwifery at the National Maternity Hospital.
The surge in births is expected in January and February of next years according to predictions and could be anything as high as a 10% increase.
Mary Brosnan says there has been an increase in the number of women contacting them to register pregnancies.
Ms Brosnan says the increase may be linked to lockdown.
“It’s very much an interesting phenomenon. Any time there’s a big event, people predict nine months later that it could be related to Covid, but certainly from March and April, we would be expecting next January and February to be quite busy.”
Professor of Biochemistry at the school of Immunology at Trinity College, Luke O’Neill explains some of the possible reasons for a baby boom during a pandemic.
“Contraception use goes down strangely. That can be because you can’t get access to the pharmacies or the family planning centres, and that is going to give rise to a baby boom.”
According to Holles Street, out of over 3000 women who passed through the hospital in the past five months, only 28 tested positive for Covid-19.