War’s Joyous Fallout in San Diego: Baby Boom

They used to ring a bell at the Naval Medical Center here each time a baby was born. And every baby’s name was printed in the base newspaper.

No more. There’s no time for such niceties.

A baby boom is underway here.

Births among the Navy and Marine Corps wives who come here for delivery are up 20% since the United States launched its war on terrorism in late 2001.

The busiest times in the ultramodern maternity ward are nine to 10 months after troops return from an overseas deployment -- a phenomenon reported at military hospitals throughout the country.

Naval Medical Center San Diego has the busiest delivery rooms of any Navy hospital in the country, averaging about 350 babies a month, officials said. Before Sept. 11, 2001, the figure was about 288.

With many of the husbands overseas, the military tries to fill the role that a spouse might be expected to play.

For each new mother, the Armed Services YMCA swoops in with a baby blanket, bonnet, birth announcements and information about support groups, including one tailored to the needs of first-time mothers whose husbands are deployed.

For labor and delivery, and for postpartum recovery, all rooms are single-occupancy, except during peak times -- for example, about nine months after an aircraft carrier task force returns from deployment.

Marisela Brittingham, 28, was two weeks overdue when she and her doctor decided on a caesarean section. Her husband, Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin Brittingham, is on the carrier Ronald Reagan.

The sight of Justin Jr., at 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and 21 inches, was more than Marisela could bear.

“I cried when I saw him for the first time,” she said as she relaxed in one of the spacious recovery rooms.

The phone rang. It was her husband calling from the Persian Gulf.

“Where’s he at?” he asked.

“He’s here in my arms,” she said. “He’s been checked out: He’s just fine.”

Janeice Thomas, 26, whose husband, Seaman Stephen Thomas, also is on the Reagan, found daughter Morgan Kimberly both a joy and a handful.

“She’s really hungry,” the new mother said.

If there is a militarywide baby boom, there are not yet statistics to confirm it. And statistics about births in military hospitals can be misleading because they do not include all babies born to military wives, officials said.

Some wives go to private hospitals for specialty care or convenience, which in most cases is covered by the military’s medical plan.

Many younger wives return to their parents’ homes when their husbands deploy, and give birth at local hospitals.

The families of National Guard and Reserve soldiers generally do not live on military bases, and thus those births are not recorded by the military.

Still, the boost in births among the wives of active-duty troops after a deployment is common and has been noted by officials at base hospitals at Camp Lejeune, N.C.; Ft. Bliss, Texas; Ft. Bragg, N.C.; Camp Pendleton; Twentynine Palms; and Ft. Campbell, Ky.

“When a carrier comes home, we know we’ll be busy in about nine months,” said Naval Medical Center corpsman Tiffany Scott.

For Marine families, there’s a good chance that a baby conceived after a Marine comes home from Iraq will be born after the Marine has returned to Iraq.

Many battalions are on a rotation known as seven-and-seven: seven months in Iraq, seven at home, then seven more in Iraq, with no end in sight.

For husbands and wives, that kind of uncertainty can lead to some soul-searching about starting a family.

“We made it through one deployment with no problem, but then we figured, ‘Should we tempt fate? What if something happens this time?’ ” said Meredith Simpson, 25, whose husband is Lt. Neal Simpson, an infantry officer.

The Simpsons decided not to wait. “If the worst happens, I’ll be devastated,” she said, “but these babies will be my husband’s legacy.”

She gave birth at the hospital at Camp Pendleton to twins. Her husband was on the phone to her from Fallouja during the 14 minutes between the arrival of Connor and the arrival of Grayson.

Leanne Doring’s husband, Gunnery Sgt. JohnPaul Doring, has done two tours in Iraq. Both of the couple’s children were born at Camp Pendleton while he was away.

Although it is difficult to be pregnant while your husband is away, said Leanne, 36, there is joy at the end. “It’s a beautiful thing to hand your husband his child when he gets off that bus,” she said.

War gives added meaning to having a family, she said.

“A war makes you realize your own mortality,” she said. “The children are the best part of what our husbands leave behind when they go away to war.”

Jenny McNamara, 35, whose husband, Cpl. Rick McNamara, was in Iraq when their baby Brady was born in September, said the demands of pregnancy were even greater than she imagined.

She went to the hospital at Stanford University for advanced care before giving birth at Camp Pendleton.

“We’re already talking about No. 2,” she said.

By Navy tradition, new fathers are the first sailors allowed to disembark when a carrier returns to North Island Naval Air Station here. And the crowd of new fathers gets larger with each deployment.

“There are plenty of new dads in the same boat as me -- literally,” e-mailed Justin Brittingham Sr.

“Sometimes we talk about how different our lives are going to be when we pull back in to San Diego.”