Evidence of a Hurricane Sandy baby boom is starting to show among New Yorkers who were huddled up during the storm.
At the CityScape OB/GYN office on Manhattan's east side, doctors are noticing an increase of pregnancies originating about the time of Sandy.
"We see around a 10 percent spike, so we're anticipating a lot of business by the end of the summer," said Dr. Luba Soskin.
In SoHo, an area without power and lights for days after the storm, a local maternity store that tracks the due date of clients is seeing more customers who are about four months pregnant.
"It kind of came up anecdotally from a few of them that perhaps they had a little bit too much fun during the blackout," said Alison Milam, vice president of the Rosie Pope maternity store.
During Sandy, millions were without power throughout the region. Dr. Jacques Moritz, a gynecology director at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, says that after natural disasters like storms and blizzards the city tends to see a baby boom.
Moritz says Sandy will have a noteworthy effect.
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“In the past, there was a bump during 9/11, there have been bumps after blackouts and hurricanes, but Sandy went on for quite a while, and events that cause power outages really bring — how should I say this? — people closer together," Moritz told the Post.
One couple expecting a baby, Brittany and David Jones, moved to New York right before Sandy.
“Everything was closed, and we didn’t really know people here because we just moved, so we just hung out together,” Jones tells the Post. “And we’d been trying off and on to have a baby anyway.”
Another woman says she and her boyfriend were holed up in her Staten Island apartment. Through the stormy conditions and ensuing blackout, 28-year-old Jennifer Adamo and her boyfriend conceived their child.
“Even though this baby is a surprise, it was such a great thing for our families after the devastation of the storm,” Adamo tells the Post.
