Baby bust, not boom, during Victoria’s long lockdowns

OSTN Staff

A landmark study reveals births at the state’s largest health service decreased by more than 15 babies a week during periods of the six lockdowns, with a rollercoaster of access to hospital, economic insecurity and mental strain all thought to play a part at different stages of the pandemic.However, Monash University researchers have also uncovered a silver lining to the lockdowns, with rates of premature births at Monash Health dropping even further than total births – indicating more pregnancies were able to progress longer and result in healthier babies than usual.While the exact reasons for improvements in the gestation of pregnancies are not known, lead researcher A/Prof Atul Malhotra believes forced behaviour changes prevented many infections or other impacts ever occurring.“The impact on premature birthrate we think is people’s behaviours – people become more particular about hygiene, especially in the first few lockdowns where people were very scared,” A/Prof Malhotra said.“People stop partying, they stopped going out, stopped hanging out with friends too much, had less infections, were sleeping better, working less or working more from home, there’s less mental stress and less physical activity.“That meant if a mother was going to deliver at 32 weeks, because of the lockdown she may now be delivering at 34 weeks.” The impact was so strong that there were almost four fewer babies a week being born before 37 weeks gestation at Monash Health after Victoria’s second lockdown., and 1.8 a week fewer births before 34 weeks by lockdown five and six.As a result, the Monash team will undertake a new trial that will see women who have previously delivered prematurely asked to follow a “lockdown strategy” during their next pregnancy to see if it can help.But results published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology reveal the on-off lockdowns provided a much bumpier rollercoaster for other would-be parents.The analysis of 38,000 Melbourne births shows Monash Health delivered 15.7 fewer babies a week during the state’s first month of lockdown in 2020 than its long term average, despite infants having been conceived long before anyone had heard of Covid.In the four weeks after Victoria’s second lockdown Monash was seeing 9.3 fewer babies a week born, a pattern which continued under subsequent restrictions.“We think after the first lockdown, it’s possible with the border restrictions there were a lot of people who are going to deliver in our jurisdiction just couldn’t come back because they got stuck interstate or overseas,” A/Prof Malhotra said.“The effects later on are more likely due to economic instability – people lost jobs, people got nervous about the pandemic, so they think ‘oh, I’m not going to have a baby because it’s gonna be very costly. I don’t try to have a job’.”The exception occurred in January-May 2021, between Melbourne’s third and fourth lockdowns, when births increased by 8.1 babies a week above the long term average.“Generally, after a year or after nine or 12 months of a pandemic, rates go up because by that time people have realised that things have changed, and people have become more comfortable and then start having conceptions again,” A/Prof Malhotra said.Bryley and Brad Conley were among those to buck the trend, welcoming son Mason on January 28 last year at just 32 weeks.“It was really not the ideal time to be having a baby during Covid and also to have a complex pregnancy,” Ms Conley said.“They found the (medical condition) hydrops at 20 weeks, and from there it just became a bit of a nightmare with medical appointmentsand living in lockdown. “He was in NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for 148 days – which was three lockdowns in that time.”

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