Mini-Baby Boom a Result of Government Shutdown?

Maternity wards are full at some Washington, D.C., area hospitals, and the cause of the baby boom may have been the 2013 federal government shutdown.

It’s been nine months since the budget sequester kept thousands of Maryland, Virginia and District workers home – the closure lasted from Oct. 1 to Oct. 16.

Could the worries over the impending shutdown, as well as time at home, have spurred an uptick in births?

WNEW reports that Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, VA, has seen 100 more babies born in the last three months compared to that time period in 2013.

Three more babies per day than average have been born daily this month at Sibley Hospital in Northwest Washington, D.C.

“NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams quipped that someone is bound to say folks in D.C. were busy doing at home what Washington has been accused of doing to the American people.

Ali Heidarpour, a Labor Department employee, and his wife Sarah, were at Sibley Hospital for a scheduled induction on Monday, but were delayed because there was no room in the maternity ward. The couple told WNEW they didn’t realize until this week that they conceived their baby girl, who was born Tuesday afternoon, while Ali was sequestered.

And it’s possible the mini-baby boom will continue for months, says MediaIte, a side effect of the brutal  and unending winter the region experienced through March, which closed government offices, businesses and schools repeatedly. Horrible roads likely kept folks inside with nothing to do but … you fill in the blank. 

>>Read the full WNEW story here.