Anecdotally, my experience within my immediate geography in a southern state are opposite from the hypothesis in the article. My wife and I had a child in late 2020, and with my social circle I can name a dozen more newborns last year that were conceived after we became aware of the pandemic. Just last week two friends announced they were expecting. This could be regional, as the economy where I live hasn't taken as…
We Expect 300k Fewer Births Than Usual This Year in the US
121–130 of 461 posts
Re: We Expect 300k Fewer Births Than Usual This Year in the US
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Couples are spending a lot of time together [...], so I'd expected that to result in more baby making But a counteracting force is that some couples think 9 months ahead and are afraid of delivering their baby in a COVID-overloaded hospital. COVID makes the opportunities for conception easier but adds to the stress and uncertainties of delivery and postnatal care. (So maybe more sex activity but also more contra cep…
I’d do the opposite. The pandemic is the perfect time to have a kid if you were thinking ahead. Sure, in the short term it might suck, but in the long term, your kid will be amongst a smaller generation. That means more resources can be diverted to them in schools and other activities. Daycares pressed for money because of a sudden drop in the supply chain may start lowering fees a bit for a while. Colleges receive l…
Re: We Expect 300k Fewer Births Than Usual This Year in the US
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
My wife and I had decided to start trying for a second child around the beginning of 2020, after the outbreak we put those plans hold because we didn't want to have to make repeated trips to the doctor/pediatrician/hospital where all the covid was. What was our employment/financial situation going to look like? In the spring of last year a million people were loosing their jobs a day at one point. Also, friend of our…
My wife and I started talking about having a kid and.. oooops! The maternity visits are fine. The major consequence is that only mom can go. I didn't get to see the ultrasounds this time around. For the maternity ward, just make sure to have an N95 or KN95 mask. Keep it on AT ALL TIMES that you are outside of the room. The hospital we went to had negative pressure machines in case a mother was covid positive. Have yo…
Re: We Expect 300k Fewer Births Than Usual This Year in the US
#124This study seems relevant https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2378023121996854 > Fewer young adults are engaging in casual sexual intercourse now than in the past, but the reasons for this decline are unknown. And this recently discussed article https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/opinion/sunday/endocrine-... > Scientists are concerned by falling sperm counts and declining egg quality. Endocrine-disrupting chemic…
In heterosexual groups, it's challenging for many men (from my experience) who are interested in casual sex but the effort is simply too high for them to pursue so they largely just check-out (I know quite a few heterosexual males who just feel like it isn't worth their time anymore). In other groups like the LGBTQ+ arena, specifically gay men, it's not nearly as difficult to find the sexual reward many seek and as a result, you'll find casual sex seems quite high. I have quite a few friends here as well and they continue to seek and find causal sexual encounters, dates, etc. or at least they say.
I'd be very interested to see if any empirical data exists that shows casual sex rates over time, normalized, and broken into heterosexual and non-heterosexual groups. If there's a similar decline in both groups then I suspect endocrine disruption may be the real problem. If there's less correlation, I'd tend to think much is culturally driven.
Re: We Expect 300k Fewer Births Than Usual This Year in the US
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
My wife and I had our first son at the end of 2019, right before the outbreak. We’ve heard from friends that women are delivering wearing a mask now. My wife thinks that she wouldn’t be able to do that and that she would pass out. The level of breathing required to deliver a baby is intense. She has basically threatened the livelihood of my genitalia if I impregnate her during the pandemic. She’s kidding, right? ;)
I delivered wearing a mask last year, it's honestly security theater. A little floppy surgical mask does nothing to contain the breathing of a laboring woman. I was more upset I couldn't kiss my baby when he was first put in my arms.
Re: We Expect 300k Fewer Births Than Usual This Year in the US
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
I highly recommend David Attenborough's 2020 Netflix documentary "A Life on Our Planet." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough:_A_Life_on_ ... https://www.netflix.com/title/80216393 It is his "witness statement" on how he has personally observed enormous environmental damage over his ~70 year career documenting wildlife throughout the world. He argues that the solution is to reduce our population growth wo…
on the other hand our planet has seen 5 mass extinction events. at the same time, 56 millions years ago the planet was extremely hot: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/whats-hotte... and, to top it off, all we're doing is prolonging the inevitable warming of the planet. things aren't so clear as that documentary makes it unfortunately.
The planet used to be hotter, agreed. But the species alive then were completely different, adapted to living in those conditions. The species alive now (including us!) can thrive in current climatic conditions. A drastic change in a short span of time will lead to a mass extinction.
Unless you think a mass extinction event is ok because it happened millions of years before humans existed? It happened to the dinosaurs so it's no big deal if it happens to most living creatures alive today?
Re: We Expect 300k Fewer Births Than Usual This Year in the US
#127At some point we will have to confront the fact that younger generations supporting older ones is the ultimate ponzi scheme.
At some point we will have to understand what debt is.
Re: We Expect 300k Fewer Births Than Usual This Year in the US
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Housing and Education are probably the biggest costs. Maybe healthcare too.
Childcare can easily run over $1000/mo per child. More for infants. When my 2nd child was born, it cost us over $500/week.
Even having a baby is very expensive in the USA, in terms of costs for the delivery, and the very very short maternity leave available to the majority of women. By contrast we had almost a year of paid leave, and paid something like €250 for a birth - which was mostly based around the cost of the room we had for a week after the delivery.
Re: We Expect 300k Fewer Births Than Usual This Year in the US
#129I'm surprised by this, as I had expected the opposite. Couples are spending a lot of time together being confined to their home without much entertainment, so I'd expected that to result in more baby making I guess the stress from the uncertainty of the future and lack of personal space more than countered that Time for me to adjust my assumptions about the world... And probably check my privilege, since I'm massivel…
But it's the worst possible time to have a baby. Healthcare is all round degraded, hospitals are risky places to be, new parent services are degraded, socialising with other parents is limited. Why would you risk doing it now rather than waiting if you had a choice? Most people have a choice, so are choosing to wait.
Re: We Expect 300k Fewer Births Than Usual This Year in the US
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Housing and Education are probably the biggest costs. Maybe healthcare too.
Childcare can easily run over $1000/mo per child. More for infants. When my 2nd child was born, it cost us over $500/week.