Why Earthquakes Cause Increased Birth Rates by Eric Yu
Summary/Discussion:
A few weeks after several major earthquakes in New Zealand, many maternity wards in hospitals are completely filled or overflowing with newborns. Health directors like David Meates and Samantha Burke believe that earthquakes speed up the process for those who are going to deliver a child because people may go into survival mode after a danger has passed. Studies show that this is true because a small increase in stress during pregnancy can sometimes trigger a hormone surge that causes early labor. Furthermore, it has been discovered that birth rates do not occur immediately after a natural disaster, but actually occur around nine months later. This has been proven by many natural disasters like a boom in babies nine months after the 8.8 Chile earthquake and Haiti's earthquake. In addition, there are fewer condoms in developing countries like Haiti so survivors have been engaging in more sex to cope with the stress, which may explain the increase in birth rates. Lastly, people may involve in more sex because there is nothing else to do like nine months after a 10 hour blackout in New York City during the year, 1966, and there have been spikes in birth rates along the East Coast for a couple years due to "snowpocalypses" during previous winters.
I chose this topic because I find it interesting that there is an increase in birth rates after major natural disasters. Also, this shows the human brain's instincts kicking in, in order to either cope with the stress or slowly rebuild their lives by giving birth. This article also proves that the belief that after major disasters, the population of that country will decrease is false since there may actually be more people after the event due to increased birth rates. However, the massive increases in birth may become a problem in the future because the population of the world will continue to rise until there is no more resources for everyone on the planet, due to natural disasters not helping to lower populations. In addition, I find this article interesting because it shows the psychology of a human mind in order to cope with stress from disasters by having sex.
Resources:
Wolchover, Natalie. "Why Earthquakes in New Zealand Increased Birth Rates."
Live Science. Life's Little Mysteries, 2 Mar. 2011. Web. 7 Mar. 2011.
<http://www.livescience.com/13031-earthquakes-zealand-increased-birth-rates.html>.
Live Science. Life's Little Mysteries, 2 Mar. 2011. Web. 7 Mar. 2011.
<http://www.livescience.com/13031-earthquakes-zealand-increased-birth-rates.html>.
I found it interesting that earthquakes can increase the birth rate. However, the fact that the female body secretes hormones because the body feels like it needs to go to "survival mode". When people are bored, I was surprised that most people have sex as a source of entertainment instead of different alternatives.
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job including everything in your blog. I find it fascinating how an earthquake can cause an increase in birth rates. Also, it is interesting how the increased stress caused many more babies to be born after huge earthquakes.This could make up for the loss of people because of the natural disaster. In addition, this could also be a problem since our world population is increasing at an uncontrollable rate.
ReplyDeleteI found your blog very well written and very informative. I did not know that the female body secretes hormones because the body goes into "survival mode." The fact that people have sex to deal with stress is also very interesting. In addition, I thought it very interesting that nine months after major snowstorms or earthquakes, there would be a spike in births.
ReplyDelete