COVID-19 may have impacted mothers’ plans to have more kids ─Study

*Experts say the Coronavirus pandemic has altered the way several consumers plan their families while thinking about the future

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Experts in a recent study discovered that ‘climate change’ may impact whether parents decide to have kids in the future.

Researchers from the New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine, in a fresh study also explored what impact the disruptive Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had on consumers considering expanding their families.

ConsumerConnect reports the study findings said about half of the mothers in New York City, in the United States (US), who were trying to have more kids before the pandemic put their plans on hold at the beginning of stay-at-home orders in the country.

Researcher Linda Kahn, Ph.D, stated: “Our findings show that that initial COVID-19 outbreak appears to have made women think twice about expanding their families and, in some cases, reduce the number of children they ultimately intend to have.

“This is yet another example of the potential long-lasting consequences of the pandemic beyond the more obvious health and economic effects.”

On how the pandemic impacted family planning for the study, the researchers surveyed over 1,100 mothers in New York City.

The experts noted that all of the women had at least a child at the start of the study, and they were surveyed in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic about their plans for subsequent children.

According to researchers, they ultimately learned that the pandemic changed the way many women were thinking about their families and their plans for more children.

Just about half of the women in the study reported actively trying to conceive before the start of the pandemic.

However, as Coronavirus infection rates rapidly increased, these plans were paused.

It’s also important to note that less than half of the women in this group thought they would reconsider and start trying to get pregnant, again, when the pandemic began to get under control.

Researchers further established that nearly 40 percent of women changed their minds entirely about expanding their families once the pandemic started.

These decisions may have long-term impacts on fertility rates and population growth.

The researchers also learned that financial status played a big role in many women’s decision to get pregnant.

The pandemic significantly impacted consumers’ employment status and finances, both of which are important factors to consider when thinking of adding another child into the family, said the researchers.

Although the research team stated it plans to do more work in this area to better understand how the vaccine may or may not play a role in women’s decision to have more kids, it is noted that the findings highlight yet another way the pandemic has impacted consumers’ lives in recent times.

Melanie Jacobson, Ph.D, one of the researchers, said: “These results emphasise the toll the Coronavirus has taken not only on individual parents, but perhaps on fertility rates overall.”

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