A Chicago Baby Boom Has Come 9 Months After The Cubs' World Series Win

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 27, 2017 3:00PM

It's been just about nine months since the fateful night of Nov. 2, 2016, when the Chicago Cubs at long last won the World Series, putting an end once and for all to goat and curse narratives. But for all that was put to rest, the win unsurprisingly signaled a lot of new life—and it's arriving right on cue.

Births are spiking in July at Chicagoland hospitals, according to the Tribune. And although the facilities haven't done any kind of scientific study to definitively determine a correlation, medical staff is apparently hearing from mothers that the newborns were conceived during the Cubs' playoff run. Seems like a fair assumption.

The birth rate at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center nearly doubled the normal rate between July 10 and July 18, Dr. Melissa Dennis, of vice chairwoman of obstetrics and gynecology at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center told the paper. The "surge" is likely to carry on through August, she said.

Recognizing their role in the boom, some Cubs players on Wednesday visited Advocate, to bring gifts for newborns like Theo, who (you guessed it) was named after Theo Epstein. "He looked like a Theo when he was born, so he kind of validated our decision," mother Erin Hettinger told NBC Chicago.

The average length pregnancy measures around 40 weeks, so the baseball baby boom will probably stretch out through the middle of August. But remember, North Side moms- and dads-to-be, "Wrigley" is long since taken.