MURRELLS INLET, SC (WBTW) – Nine months after Hurricane Florence, Tidelands Health says they’re seeing a “mini baby boom.”
The Tidelands Health Women’s Center, which has locations in Myrtle Beach and Georgetown, is preparing for an increase in births nearly nine months after Hurricane Florence impacted the South Carolina coast.
The number of women expected to deliver babies in June is about 52 percent higher than in May and about 23 percent higher than in September, which is usually the peak delivery month, Tidelands Health says. Twice as many babies are expected this June than were born in June 2018.
“I saw it on paper, and the distinction was very obvious,” said Dr. Xaviera Carter, an OB-GYN physician at Tidelands Health Women’s Center. “It may be purely coincidental, but I do think these are Hurricane Florence babies.”
“Hurricane Florence, which was a powerful Category 4 storm churning toward the Carolinas in early September, caused an unprecedented medical evacuation of hospitals along the Grand Strand and prompted many residents to evacuate and others to hunker down in their coastal homes until mid-September,” a release from Tidelands Health said. “The storm had weakened to a Category 1 by the time it made landfall in North Carolina on Sept. 14, bringing historic flooding to North Carolina and Horry County.”
“When you have an anticipated natural disaster or when you have people facing the possibility of getting negatively affected in a major way, it brings people together,” Dr. Carter said. “People just appreciate each other more.”
