Did the Federal Government Shutdown Last Year Cause a Baby Boom?

No one liked the government shutdown, but apparently, it wasn’t without love. The kind of love that transpires when, say, you and your partner both don’t have to go to work. One week passes. Then two. You’re bored. You’re adults. You share a bed. And nine months later, there you are at a hospital that seems strangely overcrowded.

“We keep getting asked, ‘What’s going on?’ ” said Sibley Memorial Hospital nurse Yulette Newman. “And we sit back and say, ‘Well, you’re in D.C. What was happening nine months ago?’ ”

According to some local hospitals, one apparent aftereffect of the 16-day October furlough has made its way into maternity wards. At Sibley, for example, an average of 9.2 births occur daily. During the past month, that number has increased by three births, or 32.6 percent, per day.