Plymouth birth rates bounce back

Pandemic caused historic lows

Birth rates in Plymouth are “pretty much” back to normal now after the pandemic caused fewer people to fall pregnant. 

In January 2021, the first time covid’s effect on births could be measured, University Hospitals Plymouth recorded 265 babies – its lowest monthly figure. 

Speaking at a recent Plymouth City Council health board, Sue Wilkins, director of mass vaccination, flu and testing at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, said: “We’ve noticed some really quite interesting physiological happenings right at the onset of covid.

“The birth rate itself has been the subject of much debate. For the first few months, it clearly was what it was: families hadn’t known that there was going to be a pandemic and we were seeing normal amounts of women coming through and giving birth, needless to say.”

She continued: “Some would say [the birth rate] would it would plummet due to fear of accessing services, and then others would tell you there was going to be this huge baby boom because people had more time on their hands – I’m saying nothing about that – and that childcare costs would become less of a consideration as people became used to working from home.”

Ms Wilkins also said that termination rates “absolutely plummeted” during the first eight to nine months of the pandemic.

The birth rate has picked up again and is “pretty much” back to normal now. “If anything”, she added, “the trajectory sees us increasing rather than decreasing in-year compared to pre-pandemic.”

Like in many parts of the NHS, staff and patients on Plymouth’s maternity wards have gone through difficult times during the pandemic, including periods when women were separated from their families

In one case staff had to tell a covid positive woman, who could not have her family with her in the hospital, that her baby had died.

Ms Wilkins said in the first wave, Plymouth’s labour services were  “plagued” by the kind of problems happening across the NHS: interruptions to supply chains, changing availability of PPE and staff getting used to providing care for families while wearing protective equipment.

Four women on Derriford’s maternity ward needed to go into intensive care. None had died, although one has suffered significant neurological damage. Women are now able to have birth partners in hospital, provided they do not have covid symptoms.  

Ms Wilkins said that, with Omicron spreading rapidly,  covid cases in Derriford’s labour ward have “absolutely peaked” in recent weeks with an average of half of patients in maternity having the virus at any one time.