Covid Baby Boom Is Hitting Iceland

What did people do when sitting at home quarantining during the peak of the pandemic last year? Well.

According to Vísir, Iceland is aiming for a new baby boom this year. It is estimated that 5,000 children will be born this year, which is 500 babies more than last year.

Record year for births

Ingibjörg Hreiðarsdóttir, head-midwife at Landspítali hospital, says that there has been a large increase in Landspítali’s services due to pregnancy and childbirth. She mentions, “We have seen a slight increase in the last three to four years, but then we started to see a jump from the beginning of the year now and we can expect that they are children who have been conceived during the coronavirus epidemic.”

When looking at the statistics from the 20-week ultrasounds, a considerable increase in pregnancies can be detected in the middle of this year.

5,000 children born this year

The COVID baby boom is not the first one of its kind. “We also saw this in the wake of the bank collapse and these are numbers that are similar to what they were then. There was an increase from 2010 to 2012 but then it leveled off. Now, this is happening again and it is looking for a record year in 2021 and also 2022,” Ingibjörg states.

It is expected that close to 5,000 children will be born in Iceland this year. For the calculations, fetal analyses from the whole country were taken into account. When asked whether there will be enough staff to handle the quarantine boomers, Ingibjörg replies, “We are working hard to meet the predictions. When employees are taking their summer vacations, we just have to work harder out of joy for our job.”

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