Remember how cold it was last Winter? Too cold to go out, too snowy to use the cars… well, it seems lots of people stayed in and entertained themselves. And now health authorities are preparing for a baby boom as all those babies conceived during that time are due this Autumn.
Next month will be nine months since blizzards brought areas of the country to a standstill and midwives are predicting a bumper crop of births.
The tough economic climate is also thought to have contributed to a boom in births as couples opt to stay at home, although that seems a bit stupid: “Hmmm, we can’t afford to go out, so let’s stay in and make a baby – that won’t cost anything, will it!?”.
The birthrate in the UK rose from 12.5 per cent to 12.7 per cent last year, despite the UK still being in recession.
Experts said the difficulty in finding a job was encouraging women to bring forward their plans to have a baby.
The NHS expects a surge in the number of babies born next month, and admitted it would prove an ‘obvious challenge’.
Joy Horner, an independent midwife from Birth Joy, based in Portsmouth, said: ‘We do see a rise in conception rates when there’s been severe weather.’