- Birth rates dropped dramatically during the pandemic, debunking the expectation of a "baby boom."
- Other reports have shown the same trend, following decades of declining birth rates in the US.
- Financial pressures, stress, fears of COVID-19 and hospital protocols likely all contributed.
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Some expected cooped-up couples to get busy in bed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but more data reveals the past year-plus has been more of a baby bust than boom.
According to an Associated Press analysis of preliminary data from 25 states, births in 2020 were down 4.3 percent from 2019.
When zooming in on December 2020, January 2021, and February 2021 – nine months or more after the pandemic forced stay-at-home orders across the US – the analysis found births were down 6.5 percent, 9.3 percent and 10 percent, respectively, compared to the same months the prior year.
Other reports have shown a similar trend, contributing to a potential "demographic time bomb"
According to data from 28 state health departments compiled by CBS News earlier this year, the US birth rate declined 4.4% between December 2019 and December 2020. That's 95,000 fewer births.
According to December 2020 data from Modern Fertility including 1,200 women who said they changed fertility plans, 49% said they were delaying pregnancy and 26% said they were unsure about having kids at all. Only a quarter said their fertility timeline sped up.
Birth rates in the US have been on a steady decline for decades, with 2019 seeing the lowest number of births in 35 years. Experts say changing attitudes toward parenthood are leading more people delay childbearing and have fewer children once they start, if they have children at all. Teen pregnancies have been on the decline, too.
But the pandemic-era dips are dramatic, exacerbating a trend that has long troubled some experts who say the US could suffer a demographic time bomb, which at its most extreme could lead to the eventual extinction of a country's population.
The state of the world, financial pressures, and fears of COVID-19 all may play a role in dropping birth rates
Haley Neidich and her partner are one couple who decided to hold off on conceiving during the pandemic, despite their plans.
After experiencing a miscarriage in January 2020, they'd been eager to start trying for their second child in March. But they made the tough decision to hit pause in part because Neidich's pregnancies have been complicated and she expects to need careful monitoring during her next one too.
They also felt the stress of pregnancy would compound the stress of caring for their toddler.
Neidich also wants to be able to lean on family and friends during pregnancy - something that wasn't an option last spring. "Pregnancy is hard, especially the first trimester, and I need my support system here with my physically in order to get through it and still be a good mom to my daughter," the therapist in Florida told Insider in April 2020.
Other couples didn't want to risk not having their support system in the hospital, or risk getting COVID-19 while pregnant, since pregnant people are at higher risk of complications and even death from the virus.
The financial burden of pregnancy and parenting is a consideration, too. More broadly, the state of the world has an impact, experts say, with one calling dropping birthrates "a barometer of despair."
"When there's a crisis, I don't think people are thinking about reproduction," said Dr. John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health, told AP.
