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Comment by imposterr | Hacker News Reader

BABIES! So many COVID-induced lockdown babies! I've had so many people, many who were either done with having children, and those who weren't planning to for a while yet, announce their pregnancies.

Wonder if there are any companies I can invest in to cash in on this?

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Interesting. I predict the exact opposite: birth rates will decline dramatically. I'm not alone in that prediction. According to this article, birth rates have already started to decline in the US: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/11/covid-19-...

I have never heard of so many babies on the way as now. Heck, even I had a son born in November (so not technically a lockdown baby).

> even I had a son

Baader-Meinhof phenomenon got you good!

I suspect this is a situation where you’re likely to have a lot of sampling bias. Lockdown has been really shit for a lot of people and I would guess that the lack of financial stability or any kind of predictability would put people off. The question is whether this is counteracted by the better off people whose pandemic experience has been more encouraging.

I had my first during the first UK lockdown (ie planned before COVID). Tbh, I thought it'd go the opposite way - I wouldn't recommend having a baby during lockouts. You have to ask family to break rules just to get some occasional rest bite and we've had very little in the way of government or community support - my wife goes to 1 baby class a week, with reduced capacity, social distancing and masks. Being a father is great, but it would have been nice to start outside a pandemic.

`Rest bite' is a great eggcorn.

I wonder if the fact of making babies by couples in lockdown will not be offset by singles in lockdown unable to go out and meet people for baby-making purposes.

That doesnt really seem to be the case so far https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/canada-s-population-gro... maybe when its all over we will have a baby boom with everyone being happy.

Atleast in Belgium, a mini baby boom is already a fact

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2020/12/29/tot-500-baby-s-meer-...

I would think the opposite. What's the long-term effect on births when the dating world shuts down for 6-9 months? I'm not single though, so I do wonder how much it shut down and was affected by lockdowns?

This has been a theme since the start of the first lockdown, but surely humans in general would seek to avoid having babies during a pandemic?

Why would anyone do that?

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