Holles Street have predicted when to expect a ‘lockdown baby boom’

The Director of Midwifery at Holles Street has suggested that a ‘lockdown baby boom’ could be on the way to the hospital in January and February of next year.

A 10% increase in births is expected at Holles Street in early 2021 and Mary Brosnan has stated that the baby boom could be linked to the lockdown which has kept people at home for large portions of this year.

She said: “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.

Usually, Holles Street delivers over 10,000 babies per year but that number could increase in 2021. Luke O’Neill, Professor of Biochemistry at the school of Immunology at Trinity College, outlined a potential reason for this by saying: “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.”