KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar BluffHospitals busy with baby boom nine months after ice storm

Hospitals busy with baby boom nine months after ice storm

By Tyler Profilet - bio | email

HAYTI, MO (KFVS) - They're called the Ice Storm Babies.  In areas hit hard by the storm earlier this year, doctors are expecting delivery rooms to fill up.

Richard Morgan worked night and day for the city of Hayti to clean up after the ice storm.  He says he didn't expect to be a new dad.

"As you can see, trying to stay warm," he said.  "I didn't have much time, but I guess I had enough to be a daddy."

Richard and girlfriend Meagan Burnham are expecting their first child in three weeks, nine months after the ice storm.

"Everybody says you got pregnant during the ice storm. I said, yeah, I did," said Burnham.

Doctors at Pemiscot Memorial Hospital say they deliver between 12 to 13 babies a month.

But anytime there's a weather disaster such as the ice storm, they flip the calendar nine months ahead to see when there's going to be another baby boom.

"When it's cold, body heat will work!" said Dr. Generoso Guzman.

Dr. Antonia Guzman says baby booms are not uncommon after big events.

"Natural disasters, something like that if it comes, nine to 10 months later we have more deliveries than previous months," she said.

When the Guzmans were practicing in Herrin, IL, they say they had their biggest delivery month, nine months after a storm.

"For both of us, I think it was 53 deliveries for both of us in one month," said Dr. Generoso Guzman.

Richard says he wasn't the only worker making the most of his time off.

"They were probably doing the same thing I did. We all go home, take a little break, and go back at it," he said.

Meagan isn't the only one in her family expecting a newborn.  Her brother will be a father for the first time next month.

"We were all staying warm at our house. That's what we were doing," she laughed.

Doctors say the increase in pregnancies can't be scientifically tied to the ice storm, but it's a popular theory.

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