MNHQ here - are you having a 'lockdown' baby?

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

We've been analysing some data here at MNHQ and going on what we can see, quite a few MNers (more than in comparable time periods in previous years) seem to have been talking about conception, pregnancy and BFPs in the late spring and early summer this year.

Which makes us think... is there a pandemic baby boom on the way? Are the shops about to sell out of Bugaboos? Will school admissions in 2025 be an absolutely massive scrum?

If this is you we'd love to hear about how you got your BFP (I mean you don't literally need to tell us how you got pregnant, we're mostly confident about that bit...) and what it was about lockdown or your changing personal circumstances that made you decide that this was the time to go for it.

Did you have more time at home without a commute? Did lockdown prompt you to reassess and rethink in some way? Did you have life changes (eg less paid work or the loss of a job) that prompted you to crack on with trying for a baby? If conception hadn't been an easy journey for you, do you think the quieter (if weirder) circumstances of lockdown helped?

We'd love to know what your experiences have been if you'd be happy to share them with us.

Thanks
MNHQ

No way. I think the birthrate will drop actually.

We’d been trying to decide whether to have another baby or not, and more time at home with our existing children made us appreciate that although it was sometimes a bloody nightmare, our little family unit was really solid and adding to it seemed like a good idea.

It happened pretty quickly for us and I did have some moments of panic once I realised what we’d done! But the baby is due early next year and I’m really looking forward to it now. I hope by the time I go back to work in 2022 things will be looking a lot more normal.

My BFP was a huge shock! Me and my partner moved back to our parents house last year, after renting our first home together, in hope to save for a deposit to buy our first home. We said we would have one last year of "freedom" ie, holidays booked, weekends away etc in 2020 then begin our savings next year.
We hadn't been trying to conceive and I was on the mini-pill but I just had a guy feeling that I was pregnant, so I took a test and on 19th March...BOOM BFP! I was in such a shock and absolutely terrified, not just at finding out I was pregnant but because of everything going on with covid and all off the uncertainty. We then went into full lockdown 4 days later. Due to the restrictions and living separately, I wasn't able to see or spend anytime with my boyfriend which absolutely broke my heart, (he also works away Mon-Fri which is hard enough without not being able to see him at All!)The most exciting time of our lives had been totally ruined! Then if that wasn't bad enough, the appointments began and having to attend them on my own mentally broke me, especially seeing our little bundle of joy for the first time by myself, when his dad should have been there beside me. Luckily the restrictions were lifted shortly after and we were able to book private scans. Luckily I had a fantastic pregnancy and managed to do plenty things and spend more time together once restrictions were eased.
At 28 weeks I was diagnosed with GD. I was absolutely devastated but soon got my head around it, however, the lack of support from my trust was shocking. Most appointments were over the phone and not face to face and I was refused my 32 weeks growth scan due to my trusts covid policy. All of this gave me really bad anxiety as I was told I was now high risk pregnancy and at high risk of complications.
I then began getting contradictory information from the hospital consultant and my community midwife, one telling me i would have to be induced no later than 38 weeks then the other telling me I would be left until 40+6, I was getting told something different every time I saw someone!
I was eventually induced at 39+4 and had my little boy at 39+6 after a horrendous induction (32hours and 3 pessarys) but very smooth labour, (even though it was 15 hours and forceps delivery with episiotomy) born on Nov 8th.

All in all, I wouldn't change anything for the world and believe he was sent to me at this time for a reason! However, I do feel like covid has had a massive impact on me mentally and in someway ruined my pregnancy experience, also the lack of support from my trust has been shocking throughout the pregnancy and recovery and I feel the NHS maternity really need to look into their policies. I imagine the present and future impact its going to have have on new mums and even children will be huge!

P.s. sorry for the novel 😂

Unplanned but wanted baby conceived in August due in April was having issues with my contraception, not helped by lockdown and restrictions

We had a set window in which to conceive, after I'd passed my probation at work, but since I'm on a fixed term contract and also have to go back to work for 3 months after mat leave to qualify, we didn't want to wait! The "conception window" was may-november basically, otherwise I'd have had to take a shorter maternity leave.
We were lucky that it happened on the first try.

Fourth baby here. As soon as my third was born I felt like I wanted another, but tried to dismiss it as on paper it was impossible - I have a long commute, went part-time after DD3 but still in quite a high-intensity job. DH a teacher. We live in a really expensive area and pushed ourselves to buy a house that meant we were always struggling for money. No family around. Couldn't imagine how we'd cope with more years of paying for childcare, juggling work/home etc with no family support.

Before lockdown I had already been saying for weeks/months/years (gathering in intensity) that something had to give. Being so far from family, and having a really lucky and lovely experience of spending so much time together during lockdown, made us reassess and decide to change everything. Went for the fourth baby (due 3rd May), my husband got a job back where we both come from, and we're moving there at New Year. We'll have the beach, a cheaper house, and tons of family around, and I'll have a longer commute but so much more support to do it 2/3 days a week.

So these were all things we'd been long considering, but lockdown reminded us that we are both happiest when we get to put our children and our wider families first, and that that was more important to us than chasing our tails to live where we live (as beautiful as it is here, and as sad as we are to leave).

Got married 5years ago and came off the pill then, and always said "if it happens, it happens". Then in June thanks to no work travel, no client entertainment, no work drinks, no gym, wfh... A positive pregnancy test! More time together and less stress. Seems to be the same for everyone at my workplace in finance as seems everyone is now pregnant.

@Thatwentbadly

Honestly *@MNHQ* show a bit of compassion it’s a difficult enough year for people, especially pregnant people who are higher risk due of covid, have concerns about how covid will effect the birth and support from available families without suggesting new issues of will shops sell out of baby equipment, especially with Brexit concerns about supply issues. Your not a tabloid, think about how you word things.

Heard of 'tongue in cheek'?

Had been trying for 7 months, did briefly consider holding off until the pandemic was over but I'm glad we didn't - I am 34 and this is my first baby (due in Feb), and all being well I will want at least 1 more so didn't want to leave it that much longer. Like others have said I'm a bit worried about maternity services when I'm due to give birth - my husband hasn't been able to attend any antenatal appointments/scans etc with me, bit worried about whether we'll have a "third wave" etc, also looks like we'll miss out on antenatal classes too. Decided not to book NCT as it's likely to be via Zoom which I see less value in. But, we are where we are and I'm delighted to be pregnant regardless!

We had been ttc our second for 15 months, got my BFP on Mother's Day so at the start of first lockdown, had him last week in second lockdown (level 4 Scotland).
It's been a very different experience this time round. I'm glad he's my second and I feel much more confident this time round.
Looking forward to the spring and hopefully enjoying my maternity leave a bit.

Having always said "one and done" we found lockdown was a time to regroup as a family and remember what is most important. Instead of finding DC a pain during lockdown, we enjoyed spending so much time and learning more about his funny personality. I know Dc would love a sibling and me and Dh began to think we would like another little person running around being funny and crazy too.

It helped that I wasn't commuting so was no longer shattered all the time. It was summer and WFH meant being able to join dh and dc in the garden and relax when I clocked off.

We'd considered waiting until covid was over but it quickly became apparent that it could be years and we weren't prepared to wait and chance fertility decreasing as I got older.

We had our wedding booked for December 2020 originally wanted to TTC straight after that. Decided it wasn’t looking likely in April/May time that it would be allowed to go ahead without restrictions of some sort so we decided to swap the order round and ‘see how things go’ with no pressure for a few months. We delayed the wedding to Dec 2021 and decided we would be happy with a 6 month+ baby at the wedding so gave ourselves some time to see how long it would take and if I would fall pregnant. Second month it happened for us so due March 2021 🥰 x

It was already in "the plan" but we had no definite date to start trying.

We started trying in May thinking the lockdown couldn't go on much longer so assumed work etc would be back soon and financial we'd be more stable again. Plus we assumed DP would be back at work 6 days a week so thought we'd made the most of him being home on ovulation days lol. Also didn't think we'd fall right away...but we did and lockdown went on another month and work still isn't back to normal so finances arent either.

We'd been not trying but not preventing since the start of the year and at the start of lockdown did discuss going back on contraception but decided to keep on doing what we're doing because there's no way if knowing how long Covid would be around for and we couldn't put our plans for DC2 on hold indefinitely.
We are both key workers and have worked as usual throughout the pandemic and gave a toddler so it wasn't a "too much time on your hands" conception. But, with individual hobbies not possible, we spent a lot more quality family time together and stopped taking each other for granted so much. Lockdown improved our relationship and Normal People improved my libido- sounds flippant but we conceived the week we binge-watched Normal People in the evenings and now DC2 is due in Feb.

We had fallen pregnant in Nov 2019, but sadly miscarried, medically managed in Boxing Day.
I went through a period of very low mood following this and had a stressful job where I was exposed to children on a daily basis.
Took a month off at the time, went back to work for 6 weeks, but was an utter mess and took another month off. That was beginning of March - focused on myself, health, fitness clots of walking!

Found out we were pregnant mid April.

I think lockdown helped as well as the tone off sick. Meant that I was relaxed, working from home as was my husband, so we had lots of time together.

I was also quite anxious about Covid and was pleased to be pregnant so that I didn’t have to go out and visit. I think it helped being able to be sick in my own toilet too and not have to worry about being sick in the office 😂.

So lockdown may have helped us along, but hopefully it would have happened anyway 🥰

I guess DD counts! Her conception would have been early April, so shortly after lockdown started. However, I wouldn't say that the pandemic in any way contributed to our decision to have her. We had planned long in advance to start trying for a baby in March 2020, and we simply stuck to that plan, ignoring covid entirely. We were very lucky to conceive quickly.

My DD is perfect and there's nothing I'd change about her, but part of me wishes I'd taken covid more seriously and waited a year (or however long until the pandemic is under control) and gas her then. When TTC I distinctly remember thinking "If I got pregnant now, everything will have blown over by the time I'm 3rd trimester, so it won't affect the pregnancy much". Clearly this was wrong. Every prenatal appointment I went to (and there were several due to some complications), I had to attend alone, with the 20-week scan the only exception. Far worse, when DD came early at 33 weeks and had to stay in NICU, only one parent was allowed to visit her per day. I was trying to establish breastfeeding. This meant that every day for three weeks, I went back and forth to the hospital twice to stay with her by myself, despite desperately wanting her father for comfort and support, while DH had to wait at home unable to see his poorly newborn daughter.

Thankfully DD is now fine and had been discharged from hospital. I'd like another child one day but will be far more aware of what's going on in the world when TTC next time. I would advise anyone considering starting to TTC now to wait till until the pandemic is well and truly over if at all possible.

My periods cycles were all over the place, we'd been trying since Oct/ Nov 2019, I was having 38, 48, 64 day cycles, they couldn't find a cause. Lockdown happened, I was able to WFH teaching remotely, stress levels dropped, periods regulated for 3 months and then fell pregnant. Stress is an unbelievable factor in fertility.

Dh and I had always said we would love to have a third baby and would start trying once my fertility returned after having DS.

As it took us 4 years to get DS we assumed the quicker we could start the better as we ideally would like a smaller age gap.

I got my first post birth period in September when DS was 18 months and amazingly got a BFP in November!

I'm quite anxious for my medical appointments after receiving bad news at scans before (mmc) so going in alone will be a little panic inducing for me.

All being well DC3 will arrive in July when DS is 2.

I really don't think the pandemic had much affect on our choice to have another or on our ability to ttc. But I do feel very lucky that I was in the position to give up work and be at home with the children during this time as childcare in our area is a nightmare, it's definitely affected how eager I was to get back to into employment which might make me less worried about having another as I know I'll be home for the long run.

Unplanned lock down baby number four over here

Honestly we were planning on TTC soon anyway and then with being stuck in we thought we might as well get on with it now. Plus as previous posters have said wfh and more time together just helped us to come to a decision sooner. Due next April so have had a few more freedoms than others who were pregnant during lockdown one, though obv can't guarantee that'll continue. I'm not sure though if our decision making would have been different outside of a pandemic or if we reached a natural point to TTC in our relationship anyway.

When our wedding got cancelled in May I came off the pill and conceived a few months later. We were going to ttc after the wedding anyway. Haven't bothered rebooking the wedding yet, will do when we are a family of 3 ❤️

I don't like it when people refer to it as a lockdown baby. We were married last June, came off the pill then and started trying at the beginning of the year after our honeymoon.
We've been lucky that DH can come to all the scans but worried about next year and whether we can have family gatherings for people to meet it

I honestly hate the term 'lockdown baby' so much. So many people have mentioned it with my pregnancy 'you were busy during the lockdown!!!' 'Oh not another lockdown, we all know what happened with you in the last one!' etc comments like this. As if all babies conceived in lockdown were an accident as we had nothing better to do with our days at home...

This baby was planned and wanted for a long time and just so happened to be conceived whilst in lockdown. Big deal. 😴😴

Got pregnant during the lockdown but have rolled my eyes at people going 'fnar fnar, lockdown baby' as I had been trying for 2 years by the time it finally happened. I didn't want to wait as I'll be 42 by the time our little boy arrives in February, and we really wanted our daughter to have a sibling ... we'd actually just gotten our first meeting with a fertility clinic over the phone when I found out the very next day I'd fallen pregnant naturally. I'd pretty much given up hope it would happen by that point!

I've been concerned about what the labour experience will be like and whether or not my partner will be able to join me in the birthing suite, but I didn't want to put my life on hold during all of this.

Agree with pp's I don't really like the term lockdown baby. I'd always planned to fall pregnant around the time I did - based on my age and the age of my first born. Decided the risk of a pandemic was less than the risk of me being a year older. No one would ever have commented on having a second baby due 2.5 years after my first in normal circumstances.