Читать книгу Leading with Empathy - Gautham Pallapa - Страница 17

The COVID-19 crises created a baby boom with millions of people stuck at home cut off from reproductive healthcare. Around 140 million babies were born worldwide in 2020.²³ The United Nations has already predicted that about 47 million women were unable to access contraceptive measures during the lockdown,²⁴ leading to unwanted pregnancies. Just as expected, after roughly 10 months into the lockdown, there was a huge baby boom worldwide.²⁵ Although social distancing urged partners to meet less and financial instability caused many families to stop having children, the lockdown has led to increased planned and unplanned pregnancies.

Despite the fact that there was a considerable spike in birthrates throughout the world, it was a significant concern for poverty-stricken and underdeveloped nations.²⁶ In India, about 1.85 million women were unable to access contraception and safe abortions during the lockdown. Pandemic-linked deaths in children are projected to be at least 10,000 per month in Latin America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.²⁷ A study from the Standing Together for Nutrition Consortium predicted that over 12 million children would suffer from undernutrition, wasting, or severe malnutrition due to the pandemic.²⁸