Southern Finland is reported showing signs of a Wuhan coronavirus “baby boom” as the number of births expected in March could be up to ten per cent higher than the previous year.
Aydin Tekay, head of the division of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Helsinki University Hospital, stated that southern Finland has already seen a slight increase in births so far this year and that pregnancy screenings suggest an even larger increase in the area in the coming months.
“During February, we will see if the forecast is correct, but it will probably be quite a busy March,” Tekay told Finland’s public broadcaster YLE.
Tekay said that the trend shows many people in the area were more cautious in the Spring when lockdown measures were more severe and that the increase in pregnancies likely occurred in the Summer.
Turku University Hospital has also projected a slight increase in births for February and March, but maternity ward head Eeva Ekholm noted that the increase was below five per cent.
In the early days of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, some predicted that the lockdown measures implemented in many countries would lead to a baby boom. But new research has indicated that the pandemic has lead to the opposite, or a “baby bust”.
According to a report from Forbes magazine, University of Maryland demographer Philip Cohen found that some states in the United States had seen birthrates decline by as much as five to eight per cent in the latter half of 2020.
The magazine also claimed that researchers in Europe found that many in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the UK had put having children on hold, while others decided to not have as many children as they had previously wanted.
Meanwhile, Hungary has continued to see an increase in birthrates despite the pandemic due to the government’s pro-family policies.
Earlier this month, Katalin Novák, Hungary’s Minister for Family Affairs, spoke to Breitbart News about Europe’s low birthrates, saying: “We think that the demographic crisis of the Western world is one the biggest challenges we face. If we can’t find a long-term solution to the problem, if we don’t act immediately, Europe will be lost.”
“Hungarians were more prepared to [deal with the] crisis caused by the epidemic thanks to 10 years of pro-family decision-making,” Ms Novák said.
She added: “I also deeply believe that thanks to our pro-family initiatives during the crisis, we will be able to overcome the negative consequences of COVID soon.”