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The lockdown that followed outbreak of the coronavirus last year may have resulted in a baby boom in Kenya, statistics released by the National Hospital Insurance Fund show.
The data reveals that a total of 974,774 births were captured in the system from March 2020 to February 2021 compared to 913,618 births the previous year.
This shows an increase of 61,156 births in the national health insurer’s database.
This number does not include those who used private insurance, those who paid in cash, or those who sought postnatal care after delivering at home, which means the number of children born in the past year could be higher.
Further, the data shows that there were 838,114 normal births in the period between March 2020 and February 2021, compared to 798,640 in the same period the previous year.
There were also 136,660 caesarian sections between March 2020 and February 2021 compared to the previous year.
Dr Gladys Nyachieo, a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology at the Multimedia University of Kenya, said that while some births were planned earlier, couples spending more time together also helped with the spike.
“Being locked down meant a change in how people lived their lives. The time together indoors meant that they had less access to other partners who ordinarily are working in the office. Lockdown also meant no recreational activities out there and people stayed at home,” she said.
Births in the country have been increasing at a steady pace since 2015, the Economic Survey 2020 shows. The number of registered births increased to 1,178,260 live births in 2019. Over the five years, there have been slightly more registered male births compared to female births.
In 2019, the sex ratio was 103 males to 100 females. The standard across the world is between 101 and 110 males per 100 females.
The Economic Survey further reveals that in 2019, 96.3 per cent of the 1,178,260 registered births occurred in health facilities. Birth registration coverage in 2019 increased to 75.7 percent.
Registered births increased marginally by 3.5 per cent to 1,178,260 in 2019, with 96.3 percent of the registered births occurring in health facilities.
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