Turns out that Hurricane Sandy baby boom in New York might really be happening.
The New York Post reports the city seeing a big bump in expecting mothers with due dates in July and August-- exactly nine months after the devastating superstorm ripped through the region, shutting off power, and perhaps causing bored couples to cuddle a little bit closer.
"We started noticing a couple of weeks ago that we were getting really busy with phone calls and lab results and charts. We were like, what is going on here?” Linda Roberts, a nurse manager at an OB/GYN office in Westchester, told the Post.
From July 15 to August 15, Roberts says her office is expecting 30 percent more deliveries than they usually see during that period.
The post-disaster baby boom, of course, is not a new phenomenon in New York City.
“In the past, there was a bump during 9/11, there have been bumps after blackouts and hurricanes, but Sandy went on for quite a while, and events that cause power outages really bring — how should I say this? — people closer together," said Dr. Jacques Moritz, gynecology director at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital.
The August following the 1965 blackout, for example, The New York Times reported record single-day birth rates, almost exactly nine months after NYC had been plunged into darkness.
Researchers also found that in 1990, after Hurricane Hugo hammered South Carolina, the hardest hit counties saw an uptick in births.
There a few theories as to why disasters might create baby booms. The most fun explanation, of course, is that cooped up couples with nothing else to do get particularly cozy.
Another explanation has it that during stressful times, people naturally seek to be close with other people.
Another less charming explanation, as Business Insider notes, is that people stuck in their homes during and after a disaster simply don't have access to birth control.
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