(Even the ability to hold off on having a child is a privilege: those who have limited or no access to birth control or abortion are often forced into these positions even if they can't afford or want them.) Record-breaking rates of unemployment due to the pandemic are only solidifying feelings of financial insecurity for those who might otherwise want children. While there could be a slight uptick, experts are doubtful that we'll see a major surge. Unlike celebrities, there's little evidence - anecdotal or otherwise - that a big baby boom for everyday Americans is coming. ![]() Money changes hands so much that it inevitably picks up pathogens along the way. And what could you actually do with that money? It was a choice of buy a car, do up your house, or have a baby.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. The disease was controlled, there was plenty of government spending. “It’s a unique situation globally, but then Australia was in a unique situation where COVID produced a very stable situation. ![]() “Antenatal serology gives you a window into what’s happening down the line, and we can see the wave continuing,” says Moaven, who expects we will see an extra 25,000 births in the year to January 2022. It was a choice of buy a car, do up your house, or have a baby. His study, co-authored with obstetrician James Brown and published in the Medical Journal of Australia earlier this year, analysed data from the Medical Benefits Schedule to show that microbiological serology tests, typically undertaken at the first antenatal visit, had soared by 25 per cent in June last year. Clinical microbiologist Len Moaven was among the first to identify the trend. “She’s a very calm person – she’s a rock.”Īt least one expert predicts the baby boom is likely to continue. “There are lots of phone calls, and luckily she gets along really well with my parents and family, and has built a good support network here,” he says. “Shifting things around is way less stressful than it used to be when I was in the office.”Īlthough closed borders have separated his wife from her mother and two sisters in Colombia, Askovic says she is taking it in her stride. “We’ve been doing all the health appointments together,” he says. However, there have also been upsides, according to Askovic, who says that working from home allowed him to give his wife more support. “That’s what happened in the late 1990s, when Treasurer Peter Costello introduced the baby bonus.” “We know that economic stimulus and a good economic outlook lifts the fertility rate,” says demographer Mark McCrindle. The government stimulus may also have played a role. “We waited until we were married and set financially, and as Lili is a bit older we decided we couldn’t wait any more,” says Askovic.įor a lot of people their work situation has shifted it seems that having a baby is a way of embracing the forced down time. In some cases, couples stayed with their pre-existing plans despite the pandemic. The reasons for the reversal are still being debated. ![]() Travel marketing manager Lauren Whicker with her son Hugo: “I have seen a lot of travel industry babies.” Dominic Lorrimer The numbers are in stark contrast to the statistics from 2020, when births fell to a 13-year low of 12.561 live births per 1000 people. ![]() The trend is confirmed by health fund data, with HCF reporting an increase of 22 per cent in newborn deliveries to the end of the March 2021 quarter. Between January and March this year NSW recorded a 5.5 per cent increase in births, while Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley recently announced $13.2 billion in additional funding to cater for the extra 1400 babies expected to be born between April and August this year, an increase of 5.7 per cent. The newest member of the Askovic family will be part of a baby boom that few people saw coming. “There is good and bad in the world, and the baby will just have to figure it out.” “The world is facing problems anyway, apart from this disease,” Askovic says. The couple are sanguine about the fact that their first child, due in November will enter a world still struggling with COVID-19. Ogi Askovic and his wife, Lilian Zuniga Pino, were not about to let a pandemic interfere with their plans to start a family.
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