Hamilton experiencing a ‘mini baby boom’
A sudden uptick in newborns will see some Hamilton hospitals boost capacity in their labour and delivery units to cope with what's being considered an unprecedented influx of births.
Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) experienced an all-time monthly record of 367 deliveries in June - good for an average of about a dozen babies a day.
There's lots of work underway to maximize space and capacity to accommodate these additional volumes that we're seeing," said Sharon Pierson, HHS chief operating officer, at a staff town hall meeting on July 8.
The boom in June is part of a broader trend that has seen births spike across the city in recent months.
There were 1,057 deliveries at HHS in the first four months of 2021, a 14 per cent jump over the same period last year.
Meanwhile, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton experienced a year-to-year increase in newborns of eight per cent between March and July.
Spokesperson Jessica Bonin said spring and summer are historically the busiest for baby deliveries at St. Joe's. In June, there were 278 - the most since September 2019.
Based on current information, we're projecting the same number of births or higher during the month of July," Bonin said over email.
At the town hall, Pierson said the rise in births could be attributed to couples being cooped up at home during the pandemic. Another possible explanation is the recent wave of people who have moved to Hamilton.
The latter is the subject of a multi-year study, launched last fall, that will provide the first concrete data about the influx of newcomers who arrived in the city from Toronto and the surrounding area.
It seems like everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who's moved to Hamilton," Brian Doucet, a professor at the University of Waterloo who is leading the study, told The Spector in October. At present there is very little data on how many people are actually moving, where are they moving from and where are they moving to."
Susie Martin, a registered midwife with The Hamilton Midwives, said there is a clear connection between Hamilton's mini baby boom" and young couples moving to the city.
We are definitely getting a lot of (clients) from Toronto who just moved to Hamilton," she said.
Martin said demand for midwifery services has always been high, but it dipped significantly in the fall and early winter. Then, in March, it unexpectedly shot up.
There was a baby bust from November to February, but it really started to pick up in March," said Martin. We've had to hire two additional midwives, so that's 80 more births we're doing in the year, and we have a waiting list every month. There's definitely a mini baby boom right now."
Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com