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July 25, 2013

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So this is what happens when the lights go out ...

WHEN Superstorm Sandy doused the lights along coastal New Jersey nine months ago, it laid the groundwork for a summertime baby boom.

Dr Steven Morgan, of the Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, said: "A lot of people were home, a lot of people didn't have TV, and obviously a lot of reproduction was happening."

Monmouth Medical Center is on track to deliver about 500 babies this month, up from 371 delivered at the same time of last year, said Dr Robert Graebe, head of the hospital's obstetrics and gynecology department. Jersey Shore University Medical Center expects about 200 births this month, up from 160.

Sandy slammed into the area on Octover 29, causing more than 200 deaths and cutting off power along the East Coast.

"There is something about that heightened arousal, that sense of emergency and danger that does seem to cause people to form this physical connection, to kind of compensate in some way," said Dr Christine Tintorer, a psychiatrist at Monmouth Medical. She said it tapped into a primitive instinct to preserve the species.


 

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