To think baby boom jokes are insensitive?

[WeepCeyTear]

Just seen a post on my facebook about how "after this pandemic, hospitals better prepare for the baby pandemic", but surely people shouldnt be trying for babies when so many treatments have been cancelled?
We dont know how long this virus will affect our lives for but i'd sure be annoyed if my hospital treatment was cancelled but the hospital was full of purposely pregnant women

[blvdbrokendreams]

Having to deal with a pandemic was the last thing on mine and my husband's mind when I fell pregnant. I'm coming up six months now and Its not fun. People want to conceive. There gonna do it

[ChipotleBlessing]

@Frazzlerock I remember when I was struggling with miscarriage and infertility I was extremely sensitive to things people said surrounding pregnancy and babies. If you can do it, staying off Mumsnet for a while would probably be good for your mental health. There are just too many triggers here

[showmethegin]

I've just got pregnant after 18 months ttc, operations, tests and a miscarriage. Do you think I'm ridiculous.

Life goes on, don't be so bloody stupid.

[Pinkblueberry]

Err I don’t think the idea or the ‘joke’ is that people are suddenly ‘trying for babies’ because their bored - people would supposedly be having sex because their bored. Sex can = babies, not always intentionally. That’s the joke. Don’t take everything so literally and seriously OP - yes you do sound like a fun sucker btw.
And appointments cancelled because of ‘purposely pregnant women?’ That’s a new one 😂 and quite hilarious actually. Maybe you’re not such a fun sucker after all...

[mumofmany81]

@Frazzlerock

I'm really sorry that you've lost so many babies - I know that losing my baby girl was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through so I can only imagine having to go through that multiple times. I really hope that you don't lose this one as you think you will.

Despite feeling very sad for you that doesn't mean that what you're saying makes any sense. To say that more pregnancies = more dead babies, more heartbroken parents and more unwanted babies going into care. You then say you don't like people making jokes about having babies as it's not a joke but the hardest thing you can ever go through. Those things don't all tally - yes there is a risk with every pregnancy that you can lose the baby and there are some babies who are unwanted and go into care but from your post it makes it sound as though no pregnancy ever ends in a healthy baby or that if there is a baby boom that all of those babies will end up in care.

Every September we midwives are always run off our feet - you ask any midwife and they will tell you that it's the busiest month for us. That's because it's 9 months from Christmas and new year. Those babies are no less wanted or more likely to go into care, the pregnancies are no more likely to result in heartbroken parents than at any other time. I understand how you can end up oversensitive when you've lost babies but what you're saying doesn't really make sense. You say that having babies is the hardest thing you can do but that isn't really the case - it's losing babies that is the hardest thing you can do :-(.

To the OP - do you think that basically life should come to an end then? We should all presume this is the end of the world and that no more babies should be born ever? What about those people who got married later in life and know their time to get pregnant is running out? Should they stop trying for a baby because you think your appointment might be cancelled in 9 months? So nobody is to get pregnant in that time? It's going to be incredibly boring for us as midwives with nobody to care for because you don't want some completely non maternity related appointment cancelled. What you're saying makes no sense. Generally we have our own anaesthetist who specialises in maternity - epidurals and spinels and they can be moved to icu at times such as these. So women who are needing them now were already pregnant before this pandemic started and cannot change that now. In 9 months time it is likely that things will be going or gone back to some type of normal and everyone will be working in their normal department. Theatres who are trying to catch up with their work load will still only have a maximum amount of theatres to use and will be using their own anaesthetists as per usual. Maternity have their own separate theatres and use our anaesthetist. I'm really struggling to see why this means that people who are getting pregnant at the moment are selfish. It just doesn't make sense to me at all. People continued to have babies through plague times, Spanish flu, world war 1 and 2. Life continues because it has to.

[crazychemist]

Surely teenage pregnancy rates are going to be down through the floor? There won’t be any pregnancies from careless one night stands either. Plus people who know they will likely lose their jobs and therefore not get maternity leave might hold off? I wouldn’t be surprised if it went down.

From a personal perspective, I am pregnant. We’d been trying unsuccessfully for a couple of years, and had been told we were unlikely to conceive naturally. We did. I’m happy about it, and if that annoys you, then yes, I’m afraid I would think you were being a bit of a fun-sucker.

[justchecking1]

It would be fair to predict that anaesthetic services might be stretched thin if there is a backlog of elective surgery to catch up on at the same time as a higher than expected level of Caesarean sections to perform. But I don't think you can ask people not to conceive based on that, any more than you can ask people not to have their knee replaced 🤷🏻‍♀️

[roarfeckingroar]

ODFOD

[Redglitter]

My eyes are rolling all the way down the street at the idea

😂😂😂

[jamcircuit]

My eyes are rolling all the way down the street at the idea that people shouldn’t try for a baby in case the hospitals are busy. I’ve honestly never heard anything so daft.

If it’s any consolation, I heard a lady on R4 who has studied birth rates after major incidents and she says it’s an urban myth that there are more babies born after a power cut or after 9/11 etc. She said the birth rate will fall as most pregnancies are young people who aren’t planning to get pregnant and won’t be together to have sex so the birth rate will actually go down.

[ChipotleBlessing]

Yeah, the midwives wouldn’t be carrying out your cataract surgery though would they? So it’s totally irrelevant to other healthcare.

[Kinneddar]

Maybe i'm just being a fun sucker though

I think thats fair to say....

[bythehairsonmychinichinchin]

Obstetricians also deal with gynaecology so yes there could be an impact on the gynaecology side of things if there is a baby boom.

[Bluetrews25]

A lot of babies are not planned. Allegedly.

[Savingshoes]

I hope that they get better choices in maternity care than those pregnant during the pandemic.
Everyone has the right to a family life, joke or no joke.

[Frazzlerock]

As someone who has lost 4 babies and likely about to lose my 5th I find it incredibly insensitive.

When people say that about the 'baby boom' all I can think of is more pregnancies = more dead babies and more heartbroken parents.
Not to mention lots of unwanted babies born and have to go into care.

But I am very sensitive about any mention of pregnancy and babies, just sends me into a downhill spiral when people make jokes out of having babies. It's not a joke, its one of the hardest things anyone can go through.

[BriefDisaster]

Well there are lots of people pregnant and having babies just now too so I don't get why it will only be a problem for people to get pregnant now??

Plus of course there is the fact that it is none of your fucking business when people get pregnant.

[Pelleas]

It just means they think people will be shagging more because they're stuck at home with nothing to do. They used to say the same about power cuts in the 80s.

[Sux2buthen]

It's...a joke. Nothing more.
I do like the one that says if there's a baby boom it will only be for firstborns
I think there will be a rush on vasectomies to be fair lol

[Lenny1980]

It’s not just about having more time for sex. There was a baby boom during the last recession. No better time to take maternity leave than when you will be missing out on fewer opportunities to progress.

[Arsed]

Jeez yabu. Get a sense of humour 😂

[Snowflakes1122]

What about all of those who will be needing treatment from purposely getting fat during the lockdown. Asking for a friend

[9millioncansofbeans]

@loutypips anaethetists are required for epidurals, Cesarian sections, assisted births.

Those anaesthetists are not maternity specific. They are currently helping out in itu

[9millioncansofbeans]

Although a joke about a baby boom I don’t think is insensitive

[loutypips]

i'd sure be annoyed if my hospital treatment was cancelled but the hospital was full of purposely pregnant women

Yeah because all the different doctors know how to deliver babies! 🤦🏻‍♀️ OP, seriously, pregnant women would only ever be treated on the maternity wards. They won't stop people with ingrown toenails from having them removed.