Frosty the Zygote!
If you’ve spent any time here on the Back Labor Blog over the past few days you’ve likely noticed a lot of snow, OT musings and did I mention snow (21 + inches here in DC). Perhaps you’re also wondering “that dog is awfully cute, but is Julia ever going to get back on topic?” - that is a a fair question.
However dear reader, (I just love when Susan Miller says that – don’t you?) I have been setting you up for a whole different and completely on topic conversation.
HA!
Snow storms, blizzards and other acts of G-d only mean one thing – a baby boom. So let’s start here – and you heard it here first – there will be a baby boom reported in September 2010. Let us not be confused – there will not be an actual baby boom. There will a few warm and wonderful anecdotes establishing a baby boom. There will be great b-roll of a couple registering at Giggle in Chevy Chase, Maryland or Schneiders in Chelsea, NYC followed by a candid interview in the soon-to-be blizzard boomlet’s nursery with two very excited expectant parents confiding in how the 21 inches made them do it (and do it and do it) until finally, Frosty the Zygote was conceived. WOW!
In all fairness –The Baby Boom story is better than the obligatory toilet paper and milk coverage that we got on Friday (and every other snow day on record).
So as a friend to the universe – reporters, producers, bloggers, readers and the like, I am here to share what I have in my pretty little head.
The facts:
*Four-million babies are born in this country each year (give or take) and the give (in this case) may be a tiny, hard to detect (unless you are trying to establish it) up-tick in births in September, 2010.
*Sperm are cool – well at least they like the cold. And sperm, like their carriers are less than hardy - tending not to make their mission in the warm months. Now, AC helps – but historically and for physiological reasons more babies are conceived in the cool months than the hot ones.
*According to Babycenter: More newborns arrive during the late summer and early fall months of July, August and September than any other time of the year (I have a house full of summer babies, making me sadly typical).
*To put it in medical-speak (of which I am not an expert): The Asian Journal of Androogy reports: Increased environmental temperature, (maybe also light exposure) has an additional negative effect on the spermatogenesis.
*Frosty the Zygote is due on September 12, 2010 . In order to have conceived a baby on Sunday, December 20, 2009 you would need to have had your LMP on November 4, 2009 and be on a 30 day cycle. Odds on this one - not fab…
So, segment producers, editors and bloggers alike – now you know. The September Baby Boom story is no longer as pure and alluring as the driven snow…in fact, it kind of looks like day old snow a this point—a little dirty and piled up on the side of the road.