Health visitors in Scotland are expecting a baby boom in the new year as the first lockdown infants are born, it has been reported.
Family support workers said they are preparing for a surge in births nine months on from the beginning of the pandemic after receiving calls from expectant mothers.
Victoria Creanor, a health visitor for NHS Forth Valley in Alloa, told The Times: “We are all anticipating and bracing ourselves. It will start getting very busy.
"I know that there are some mums who have conceived again perhaps sooner than expected. People have been quite open about saying, ‘We will have a lockdown baby’. I am absolutely anticipating that next year is going to be very busy. That is something to celebrate.”
Donna Frew, the clinical team leader for children’s health with NHS Ayrshire and Arran, said discussions with midwives and the volume of calls from expectant mothers to health visitors suggested an increase in births during 2021.
“Health visitors visit antenatally before the babies arrive so they know when mums are at about 38 weeks,” Frew said. “I think we are going to get a lot of notifications about antenatal visits quite soon. It is a lovely thing.”
January, February and March next year fall nine months after the first wave of Covid-19 when socialising across Scotland was banned, all pubs, attractions and shops were closed and everyone who could do so was asked to work from home.
Gavin Fergie, of Unite union’s community practitioner and health visitors’ association, said while statistics were not yet available, reports from members indicated “there will be a lockdown baby boom”.
He told The Times: “There are now a lot of babies expected. Would it have been like that if we did not have a pandemic? It has focused minds on what is important, what is valuable in society.”
Fergie said that for some people though — including same-sex couples keen to have children — the pandemic had made it more difficult to start a family.
Dr Mary Ross-Davie, director of the Royal College of Midwives Scotland, said although a surge has been anticipated there did not appear to have been a big rise in bookings for the first appointment at eight to 12 weeks into pregnancies.
She added: “Midwives worry about staffing shortages and how we would deal with a baby boom.”
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