Philippines faces baby boom due to coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Covid-19 isn’t only the cause of human death, it is also increasing the baby boom rate.

More than 200,000 babies are expected to be born in the Philippines in the coming days.

Most countries in the world have issued more or fewer lockdowns to prevent the spread of the epidemic – shops are closed, people cannot get out without urgent need. The Philippines was no exception, but the restrictions were stricter than in many other countries.

Although these stringent restrictions have kept the spread of coronavirus in the country a little less, reproductive health care has been severely hampered.

Although birth control services were limited, they did not work. Many women have become unplanned due to the contraceptive pill crisis due to disruption of communication and transportation systems.

That’s why the country is set to have about 214,000 more babies next year, in addition to normal births next year.

In other words, 1.9 to 2 million children are going to be born in the country next year. The University of the Philippines Population Institute and the United Nations Population Fund have provided these estimates.

Rovelli Jabala, a 41-year-old woman from the Philippines, is planning to give birth to her tenth child unplanned. Rovelli became the mother of 7 children before she learned about family planning. This time she got pregnant during the lockdown.

According to the BBC, the Philippines is one of the few countries in the world to issue the strictest lockdown to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic. At that time, army members were patrolling the roads of the country with arms.

Police check posts were set up at various places to control the movement of common people. Only one member of the family was allowed to go out to buy food.

Many could not go to the health centers due to quarantine in some places, many clinics were also closed. About 600,000 women were deprived of birth control due to the lockdown in June. Thus, many women like Rovelli have become pregnant across the Philippines.

The birth of millions of babies poses a major threat to the country amid mounting pressure on the healthcare system and the economy, including lockdowns.

Although there are other factors besides Covid-19 working behind the birth of extra babies in the Philippines.

Birth rates throughout the Philippines have increased dramatically already. Many people crowded in Manila. There are 13 million people living in the mountainous region from the Sierra Madre to Manila Bay.

According to 2015 statistics, there live on average more than 70,000 people per square kilometer. As a result, crowds overflowed everywhere from the city streets to the jails.

Most people in the Philippines are Christians. There, especially according to the beliefs of Catholic Christians, birth control and abortion are both sins. That is why many pregnant women are not allowed to have abortions from their families even during this difficult time of Covid-19.

According to experts, poverty is another cause of high-birth rates in the Philippines. Poverty has increased further during this time in Covid-19. Poor people lack sex education and even birth control is not readily available to them.

As much as the government has been working for a long time on poverty alleviation and family planning, it is now on the verge of collapse due to the coup.

Juan Antonio Perez, executive director of the country’s Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM), said: “The whole thing we’ve been doing for four years with that program could be ruined. This will result in more unplanned pregnancies. ”

“Right now, three out of every ten people are having unplanned pregnancies,” she said. If the situation worsens, half the pregnancies next year could be unplanned. ”