The much publicized “millennium baby boom” – and the accompanying prediction of New Year chaos in maternity hospitals – is not going to happen, according to researchers involved in The Southampton Women’s Survey, a large-scale survey which aims to identify pregnant women early in pregnancy. According to data gathered by the researchers in the last few months, the number of babies scheduled to be born over the Millennium to women in the survey is no higher than would expected any other year.

The Southampton Women’s Survey is studying all 20,000 women in Southampton aged 20-34 to assess their health, diets and lifestyles. Those who subsequently become pregnant are identified early, and the growth of the baby is related to the mother’s pre-pregnant health. The Survey team has been monitoring the number of pregnancies identified each month and, contrary to expectations, has recently been intrigued to find no evidence of pregnancies scheduled to come to term at the new millenium.

Survey Co-ordinator, Dr Hazel Inskip, said: “The Millennium baby boom has been much publicised as a problem for the NHS. We were expecting to see a sudden rise in the number of pregnancies in our study, but this has not happened at all. This must be reassuring to those working in the Health Service as we now move into the next millennium.”