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The birth rate, which falls from year to year, is at its lowest in France. Can we hope that a post-containment baby boom will reverse the trend?
Maternities had prepared to face a birth boom after the first confinement. However, for the time being, this is not yet the case. Gabriel, two days old and born in the maternity ward of the Institut mutualiste Montsouris (Paris), was designed last April. Confined to the countryside, his parents, despite the Covid-19, did not give up their plan for a second child. “We were able to isolate ourselves, to leave Paris. We were in a fairly pleasant context“, entrusts Mathilde, mother of Gabriel.
Not all parents necessarily shared this optimism in times of health crisis. “There may be a bit of anxiety from couples, uncertainty about this situation, so maybe they shift their desire to have babies a little bit.“, Explain Elisabeth Tricoire, midwife coordinator at the maternity ward of the Institut mutualiste Montsouris. In France, the birth rate declined in 2020; 740,000 babies were born, ie 13,000 fewer than in 2019. This decline has been confirmed for six years.