With Guns of War Silenced, Baby Boom Erupts at Bases

Nine months after many of the 20,000 Navy and Marine personnel came home from the Persian Gulf to Camp Pendleton, the predicted baby boom has come to pass.

Both the base’s Naval Hospital and local community hospitals are reporting a sharp jump in the number of babies born to military families, a trend that began in late December and seems to be continuing.

“We certainly are seeing a major increase in the last six weeks,” said Denise Stearns, spokeswoman for the Fallbrook Hospital District, where the number of births to military families rose to 46 in January, up sharply from the average of 25.

A spokesman for the insurance company serving 10,000 Marines at El Toro and Tustin said a baby boom of sorts appears to have occurred there, too.

“Scientifically, I can’t say for sure if the babies were due to the Gulf War, but it is a good chance,” said Michael Carr of Aetna Health Plans.

His figures show that during a six-month period between April and September 1991, 1,835 military personnel and dependents from Marine Corps Air stations at El Toro and Tustin received obstetrics care, contrasted with 859 in the same period in 1990.

“There’s your boom, so we’re off and running,” Stearns said, adding that February is shaping up to be just as busy.

At Tri-Cities Medical Center, which serves Oceanside, Vista and Carlsbad and takes some of the overflow from Camp Pendleton’s hospital, the average is 380 births a month, but 418 children were born in December and 430 last month. “We are averaging 50 extra births a month, the majority of which are military,” said Karen Ladley, assistant administrator at the hospital.

The brevity of the Gulf War prompted Ladley to predict that this boom will be short-lived. Navy Capt. William Rowley, commanding officer at the Naval Hospital, also believes the baby boom is leveling off. If anything, many couples may have decided “it’s no time to start a family” because of the high cost of living and military staffing reductions.

Times staff writer George Frank contributed to this story.