Hurricane Sandy Baby Boom Hits Jersey Shore Hospitals
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(ASBURY PARK, N.J.) — Nine months following Hurricane Sandy, Jersey Shore hospitals are documenting a bigger increase in births than after other disasters, the Asbury Park Press reports.
While Neptune’s Jersey Shore University and Brick’s Ocean medical center saw a 20 percent birth increase, Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch recorded a 35 percent baby bump, according to an Asbury Park Press hospital review.
“People just love hurricanes and sex,” Richard W. Evans, an economics professor who has studied the impact of hurricanes on fertility, said.
Evans says the baby boom can be attributed to residents who lost electricity during the Oct. 29 storm, rather than those affected by flooding and evacuation.
“If your lights go out and your electricity goes out but you can stay in your house, fertility increases,” Evans explained. “If you are running for your life or being evacuated or flooded out, you are not making babies.”
Another baby boom theory is fear’s power to “heighten arousal,” says Long Branch psychiatrist Christine C. Tintorer. Tintorer says disasters like Sandy can force interaction and physical intamacy, according to the Asbury Park Press.
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