A new study predicts the coronavirus lock down won't create a baby boom nine months from now.
Researchers at the University of Florence in Italy conducted a survey that found 81% of respondents are not looking to conceive during the lock down.
Before the pandemic, 18 percent of those surveyed said they were looking to expand their family, now 37-percent have put that pan on hold.
Dr. Elisabetta Micelli, the study’s main author, speculates that mental health is playing a big role in many peoples’ decision to delay having a child.
“The impact of the quarantine on general population’s perception of their stability and peacefulness is alarming. In our study sample, the majority of participants gave significantly higher total scores to their mental wellbeing before the pandemic, while lowest scores were reported in the answers referred to the COVID-19 period,” she says in a statement. “We aimed to evaluate if pandemic-related concerns and worries are affecting the desire for parenthood in couples who were already planning to have a child or if quarantine is encouraging reproductive desire."
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