COVID-19 pandemic resulting in fewer births in U.S., study shows

WINTER PARK, Fla. - If you thought we'd see a baby boom in nine months because of the pandemic, think again.

A new study says that the COVID-19 pandemic may actually lead to fewer births. In fact, there could be 500,000 fewer births in the United States next year.

"This is a challenging time for people to consider getting pregnant and our patients have expressed concern," Dr. Mark Trolice, the Director of Fertility Care at the IVF Center in Winter Park, explained to FOX 35. He believes the study is accurate. "COVID has affected our lives in unprecedented ways and we still don’t have all the information we need to be able to counsel patients who are pregnant on the risks."

Dr. Trolice wants couples to know that having children during the pandemic could involve unknowns about coronavirus, which could make having a baby risky. He explained that "God forbid, this is causing significant issues like birth defects, we don’t know. We know that high fever in the first trimester can cause birth defects.”

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Morgan Balough and her husband have been trying to have their first child for about four years now. She just started her third round of IVF and told FOX 35 that "we’re the healthiest we’ve ever been and we’re taking those additional precautions.”

With that said, they have decided to move forward with their treatments, stating that "for us, we’ve been trying for so long. We’ve been preparing for this cycle for so long that the decision to postpone is a bigger decision than the decision to move forward.”

Dr. Trolice goes over the potential risk with his patients, especially those with pre-existing conditions. He said that "if an infertility patient comes to me who is obese with diabetes, I share with them, I say this is a significant risk that if you do, God forbid, get COVID, this can worsen your course.”

He advises that couples hold off on having children right now if they can, allowing more research to be done on how COVID-19 affects pregnancy.

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