QUARANTINE BABY BOOM?
KUCHING: Medical specialists are of the view that it is still too early to determine if there will be a quarantine baby boom at the end of this year or start of next year resulting from the movement control order (MCO), conditional MCO, and recovery MCO implemented due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is still a bit early to see the expected boom in antenatal care expected from the spike from the quarantine baby boom,” said Dr Philip Kho, resident consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Borneo Medical Centre (BMC).
He told New Sarawak Tribune recently that some parents were still cautious about visiting healthcare centres for a pregnancy check-up for fear of being exposed to patients with Covid-19.
He said that although he had seen patients registering for bookings for babies conceived during the MCO period, it was still too early to clearly see the spike in quarantine babies just yet.
“Having said that, I have patients who are working outstation but managed to conceive during the MCO period as they are at home.
“They were finding it difficult to conceive before due to work and being away from their spouses before. Thanks to the MCO, they were able to conceive spontaneously,” said Dr Kho.
BMC’s resident consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Nicholas Ngeh also said that it was still too early to tell if there would be a quarantine baby boom, but noted that there had been a spike in teenage pregnancy recently.
