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Baby boom hits Florida after '04 hurricanes

Hospital maternity wards report spikes in birth rates in wake of

storms

Allan Woolard and his girlfriend, Edie De la Cruz, look at their

newborn baby at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Fla., July 1.

The couple says their child was conceived last year when three

hurricanes hit the Orlando area.

Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP

Updated: 5:47 p.m. ET July 7, 2005

ORLANDO, Fla. - Allan Woolard and his girlfriend, Edie de la Cruz,

woke early the morning after Hurricane Jeanne whacked their

neighborhood. They wanted to see the damage, and there was plenty:

trees, roofs, porches, power lines — all wet, all on the ground.

Their house, miraculously, was untouched. Still, Orlando's roads

were flooded, and the electricity and phones were out. To pass some

time, they broke out the water bottles and crackers, and started a

puzzle.

When they finished it, they played bingo. When they finished that,

they talked — and talked, and talked, until dusk thankfully fell.

Allan lit some candles. Edie fidgeted. She was feeling a little

bored. So was Allan.

Nine months after all those rounds of bingo, Allan and Edie are

enjoying their first baby — a 6-pound, 2-ounce boy, whom they

named

. Like many Florida couples during the hurricane blitz of

2004, they did more than take refuge in the closet.

'It really was romantic'

" It really was romantic, " Edie, a 39-year-old medical

technologist,

recalled recently, hours after her son was born. " We'd just

gone

through a traumatic storm, and we'd helped each other through it,

and — well, it gave us a real feeling of closeness. "

Says Allan, a 41-year-old forklift operator: " Our power was out

for

three days. What else were we going to do? "

Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne brought much heartache

to Floridians in 2004. Families were split up, careers interrupted,

marriages postponed; businesses, schools, post offices and hospitals

shut down for weeks, even months.

Some Floridians, however, say there has been a blessed aftershock

this summer: a bumper baby crop, the " hurricane baby boom " of

2005.

Hospitals across central Florida are reporting double-digit spikes

in births, a phenomenon many obstetricians, nurses and parents

attribute to three hurricanes that crisscrossed the region in August

and September.

In Orlando, which was slapped by Charley, Frances and Jeanne,

deliveries at Winter Park Memorial were up 26 percent from May 20 to

June 7, compared with the same period in 2004.

The Florida Hospital in Orlando saw a 24 percent spike in May;

Central Florida Regional, in nearby Sanford, and Health Central, in

the neighboring city of Ocoee, reported similar increases.

And in Daytona Beach, deliveries shot up 25 percent at the Halifax

Medical Center in late May, and 21 percent for the month of June,

according to Kate Holcomb, a hospital spokeswoman.

Halifax, it turns out, was ready; enrollment in its birthing classes

had risen 50 percent by early May, and so, expeditiously, noted

Holcomb, " we had ordered a few extra diapers. "

Stuck in the dark

There have been reports of similar surges in deliveries after other

disruptions, such as blizzards and New York City blackouts.

Demographers are careful to note that science has yet to prove the

relationship between such things and birth rates. There are many

variables — say, managed care's impact on hospital

populations, or

seasonal fluctuations in sperm count.

Dr. Hill, an obstetrician at Florida Hospital's maternity

ward, is quite aware that there is no reasonable way to study such a

phenomenon, no academic way to quantify it. Still, he says, " most

people around here seem to think there's something to it. "

" Think about it: men and their wives, stuck in the dark, with

burned-

out batteries and mattresses, " Hill said.

Defrin, a 26-year-old hair stylist, gave birth to her daughter

in May. Tori was conceived on Aug. 16, three days after Charley

knocked out the Defrins' electricity. " My wife always says we

got

our baby by hurricane, not by stork, " says Defrin, 32.

Later, when the couple spotted other expecting mothers with their

husbands, " We'd say, 'Oh, yeah — they lost power ...

they lost

power ... they lost power ..., " ' recalls.

Hours after Charley hit, Weesner and her husband, ,

had also gone through their batteries and candles, had worn out the

Scrabble board, and had popped open a couple of beers when ...

" I was thinking, " says , 29, a landscape architect,

" if we were

going to have any fun, it might as well be then. We were without

power, and it was hot in the house, and only going to get hotter. "

The result? Madison, their first baby.

Plenty of stories to tell

Robin Kraich, a spokeswoman for Orlando's Arnold Palmer Hospital

for

Children & Women, isn't convinced there's a baby boom

underway in

Florida — not yet. Her hospital, she says, saw a 1 percent

decrease

in births in May, relative to 2004.

However, she adds that the hospital has yet to tabulate data for

June and July — precisely the months most hospitals in central

Florida are expecting even higher delivery numbers.

If the hurricanes of '04 have not triggered an across-the-board

population increase, at least they have produced some colorful

stories. Hill, the obstetrician, recalls a favorite, told by one of

his female patients:

Two years ago, her husband bought a gas-powered generator, in case

of a power outage. When she saw the generator, she scolded her

husband — told him to return it and get his money back.

The husband, however, refused. He felt guilty about returning the

generator, and it sat in the garage for a year, much to his

wife's

chagrin.

Then, last August, Charley arrived.

For five muggy, scorching, summer days, electricity in Orlando was a

luxury. Naturally, it was next to impossible to find a generator

anywhere in Orlando, at any price.

But thanks to her husband, the woman and her family were the envy of

the neighborhood, running a portable air conditioner, the DVD

player, the computer, the ice maker, the TV and microwave.

What did this story have to do with hurricane babies?

" For a whole week, " Hill explains, " that husband got

everything he

asked for. And nine months later — well, I got the call. "