Baby boom hits Florida after '04 hurricanes

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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. Ashley 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.

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Lisa 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 Paul 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 ...,”’ Lisa recalls.

Hours after Charley hit, Erin Weesner and her husband, John Paul, 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 Erin, 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.”

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