Mother Nature's Entertainment

[Soxy]

Things I never knew before...

 

9 months after storms . . .

`There was no electricity, they were spending a lot of time at home, there were candles and -- I'll leave the rest up to you.'

 

By Sandra Pedicini

Sentinel Staff Writer

Published June 7, 2005

 

Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne have given new meaning to the term "stormy romance."

 

The power was out and there was nowhere to go. Central Florida couples did what many couples do when the lights go out.

 

So, it's no coincidence there's a baby boom nine months after Hurricane Charley. Since May 20 -- 40 weeks after Charley hit -- the number of births is up 26 percent at just one hospital compared with this time last year.

 

"The electricity being out, just like the blizzards up North, you have to play by Mother Nature's rules, I guess. Mother Nature's entertainment," said Mark Growe of Windermere. He became a first-time father last week when his wife, Amy, gave birth to 7-pound, 10-ounce Sarah Elizabeth.

 

"I guess, from all that destruction," Growe said, "there's a little ray of sunshine that came out of it for some people."

 

Hospitals throughout the region report a surge in the number of births, which they attribute to last year's triple hurricane whammy.

 

Florida Hospital, one of the region's largest hospital groups, has seen double-digit gains since May 20 compared with the same period last year. That includes a 26 percent increase at Winter Park Memorial and an 18 percent spike at its downtown Orlando campus.

 

Other hospitals report similar gains, including Central Florida Regional in Sanford and Health Central in Ocoee. Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach has posted 25 percent more deliveries than a year ago.

 

Orlando Regional Healthcare, which operates Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women, could not provide data.

 

"We've got our catcher's mitts on," said Jan Wagner, a registered nurse in Halifax's labor and delivery department.

 

Enrollment in childbirth classes at Halifax was up 18 percent in May.

 

Pregnant women flocking to the classes all have the same story, Halifax spokeswoman Kate Holcomb said.

 

"There was no electricity, they were spending a lot of time at home, there were candles and -- I'll leave the rest up to you."

 

Some women said the storms and their aftermath also made it difficult for them to reach their pharmacies for birth-control pills.

 

Hurricane Charley knocked down a big tree at the entrance to Sara Clarke's apartment, and debris covered the road leading to her drugstore, a CVS on Curry Ford Road in Orlando. So Clarke decided to stop taking the pill rather than brave nasty conditions outside to renew her prescription.

 

Soon after, she and her husband, Gregory, conceived a baby boy, who is due June 14.

 

"I think it was just all timing, and being home from work and," she giggled, "not having anywhere to go."

 

Florida's Office of Vital Statistics hasn't tabulated birth data for May, so it can't yet officially confirm a baby boom. But to further illustrate one is occurring, the wives of five firefighters at a fire station in downtown DeLand got pregnant during the hurricane season.

 

The post-hurricane surge in births doesn't surprise Melody Guy, maternal/child director at Health Central. She remembers similar results after snowstorms when she lived in suburban Chicago.

 

"I know it's kind of an old wives' tale," she said. "But I truly do believe it."

 

Some hospitals say they expect even bigger increases in the next couple weeks. People might have been caught up in the excitement of the first, quick storm, Guy said, while boredom set in during the last two hurricanes.

 

Frances and Jeanne also might have ignited more passion than Charley, which hit during the heat of August. A week of no air conditioning during the sweltering summer might make conditions ripe -- but not necessarily for hanky-panky.

 

Maria Mills-Benat conceived her son Jesse around Hurricane Frances, when "it was nice and windy," she said. "It wasn't so hot. . . . It was too hot during the other hurricanes to do anything."

 

Like other couples, the Benats said they had a little unexpected time on their hands during the storms.

 

The couple have two other children to keep them busy. But "after they go to bed, no entertainment," said Greg Benat of Daytona Beach.

 

After one tryst, the couple joked about the possibility of having conceived during a storm.

 

"My husband and I even said afterwards, 'Wouldn't that be funny if we got pregnant during the hurricane?'" Mills-Benat said. "It's probably going to turn out to be a wild child."

 

A half-hour after giving birth Thursday, that didn't seem to be the case.

 

"He's very calm," Mills-Benat said.

 

Janel Coffing of Port Orange said she conceived soon after Hurricane Frances. It was her fourth child, a baby girl born last week.

 

Hurricane Frances sent her and the kids packing for Virginia. "I took the kids and left for the second one," she said. Her husband had stayed behind.

 

Was the birth the result of a happy reunion after the short separation? Possibly, Coffing said, "catching up for lost time."

 

One statistic not showing up: kids named after last summer's storms. Wagner, the Halifax nurse, said she has yet to see a Charley, Frances or Jeanne.

 

"That never even popped into our head," Mark Growe said.

[FlaSoxxJim]

My best friend and his wife just had a baby down here last week. We all know whet they were doing while the electricity was out.

[southsider2k5]

If its a boy, I guess that makes it Mother Nature's Son?

[Soxy]

If its a boy, I guess that makes it Mother Nature's Son?

:banghead :banghead

I laughed...

[EvilJester99]

Nothing else to do since the power is out... no TV...might as well get to baby making...or atleast get in a lot of practice anyway hehe

Edited June 7, 2005 by EvilJester99

[WilliamTell]

Might as well have fun just in case the worst happened in the storm.

[HuskyCaucasian]

My mom worked in Labor and Delivery for years and she has MANY examples of birth rates jumping after a major snow storm. They used to mark snow storms down so they can anticipate a busy time 9 months from then.