Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, said this decline was exacerbated by the pandemic. Tali Bogler, chair of family medicine obstetrics at St. There were 13,434 fewer births in 2020 than in 2019, the greatest year-over-year decrease (3.6 per cent) since records began and the lowest number of births in any year since 2006.
Since the onset of the pandemic, that decrease has intensified: Canada’s fertility rate decreased from 1.47 children per woman in 2019 to a record low of 1.40 children per woman in 2020. The number of births in Canada has fallen to a 15-year low amid COVID-19 pandemic “So we decided to wait for a couple of months and to see how it goes.” “We knew for a fact that it was not the safest time to have a baby in a time of a pandemic,” Lira told Global News. Lira and her husband, who both live in Toronto, immediately reassessed this plan as their concerns about trying to have a baby in a pandemic mounted: what would doctor’s appointments look like? Would she have to give birth alone? What were the health implications of contracting the virus while pregnant? She finally felt ready to start trying in early 2020, just as COVID-19 hit. When Jessa Lira got married in 2017, she didn’t anticipate being ready to have children for at least a couple of years she wanted to enjoy life as a newlywed for a while and travel. Send this page to someone via email email.