There’s a popular notion that during major
blackouts or snow storms hospitals see a mini “
baby boom” exactly nine months later. The common sense notion is when people don’t have power or they can’t drive anywhere ‘cause there’s too much fucking
snow, they have to make their own fun, which invariable means
sex1 (instead of say
cribbage by candle light).
This notion gained prominence in the popular press after
The Great Northeast Blackout of 1965. However, a 1970 study of the data revealed no unusual statistically significant spikes in births within the affected area during a period 9 months later (plus/minus a period of time that matches the distribution of typical human
gestation). Since then a number of other studies following events like snow storms have also shown little up tick, including one that looked at the data following
9-11 (the study was prompted by amateur demographers who were urging
maternity wards in NYC to prepare for a boom).
While this seems to run counter to
common sense, one must remember people are fucking all the time, lights or no lights. Lots of people use
contraceptives and lots of people don’t. Few people who use contraceptives suddenly throw them out the window during blackouts or snow storms. Those that do use contraceptives and are prompted to
shag out of boredom, well, contraceptives are very effective. And despite what most men will have you believe,
condoms don’t lose their effectiveness if the TV is off. (Took me a while to realize that.) And the portion that run out of
plunkers and can’t get to the druggist won’t tip the scales in a significant way. The chances of conception on that single day are also against them. And of course lots of women are on
the pill which pretty much covers them regardless of weather conditions or how messed up the
power grid is for a couple days.
And of course this all assumes too that every couple that has been married for 3+ years would actually have sex if they were robbed of cable TV. Many, I’m sure, would probably break out the cribbage board and carry on
avoiding sex (with their
domestic partner).
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1 Sex is how babies come into the world.