Do Major Storms Really Cause a Baby Boom?

January 26, 2015

In fact, some hospitals in the New York City area saw a 10 to 20 percent increase in the number of births following Hurricane Sandy, according to the report. Other hospitals have reported no noticeable increase in activity in their maternity wards, and laugh off the suggestion of a storm baby boom.

Doctors are often on opposite sides of this fact or fiction speculation. Researchers who see a spike in birth rates often go back nine months to try and determine a cause. And while there’s no true medical basis for the blizzard baby phenomenon, there are weather events that are followed by a surge of births nine months later…and equally impressive storms that have no effect on birth spikes. Birth rates tend to vary naturally.

As for how weather can affect fertility, researchers at the University of Texas/Austin and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have studies on birth rates following hurricane season in 2007. Both teams concluded that low severity storm warnings had a “positive and significant” effect on fertility, while high severity storm warnings had a negative effect.

Photo: Getty

Vicki Clinebell majored in journalism at the University of Colorado and headed to an advertising agency before beginning a long career in broadcasting, spanning production and copywriting to Sales and Management for an ABC affiliate station.

Her decision to switch gears to pursue a career in writing fulfilled a lifelong ambition. She started as a blogger for a diverse group of businesses, and now writes for a number of digital publications for companies stationed in her hometown in the Rocky Mountains, and provides advertising copy and media buys for national and regional clients. She finds the research as intersting as the writing—she loves learning about subjects as diverse as construction scaffolding, child safety seats, and the newest trends in beauty and fashion.