NEWSLETTER
Earlier this week at the Chicago Tribune, journalist Marwa Eltagouri told the story of a couple of Cubs’ fans whose newborn baby, Ivy, may have been conceived on the night of the Cubs World Series Game 7 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
“She was a surprise,” said the father, Phil, “I don’t think you plan for a World Series baby,” he said while laughing. However, Phil might be more right than he thinks. Or, rather, Ivy may not be the only Cubs-World-Series-celebration baby due this summer.
Indeed, according to the Tribune, Chicago hospitals are reporting a spike in the number of births this month and doctors are hearing delivery room tales from mothers suggesting the Cubs playoffs may have played a role in the process.
And this isn’t just a tiny spike. Doctors at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center have delivered nearly TWICE as many babies than usual from the week of July 10 – July 18 and the surge is expected to continue into August. And for what it’s worth, the typically pregnancy lasts somewhere between 38-40 weeks, making today, July 26 exactly 38 weeks since the Cubs 10th inning victory.
And before you shrug this off, it’s not actually the first time in history a sporting event has caused such a phenomenon. According to researches with the British Medical Journal, a similar spike (that time it was 16%) followed exactly 9 months after Andres Iniesta, an FC Barcelona player, scored a game-winning goal against Chelsea back in May of 2009. And it supposedly happened after the Red Sox ended their drought back in 2005, as well.
Of course, this entire concept is a bit hard to prove, but the history, data, and anecdotal evidence all seem to add up: The Chicago Cubs World Series baby boom may have really happened.
