Mystery baby boom hits health workers

9:18am Wednesday 24th September 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A mysterious baby boom amongst Helston's healthcare workers has been causing a major headache for one local firm.

No fewer than 12 of Allied Healthcare's 15 Helston staff have fallen pregnant over the past two years, leaving bosses struggling to cover timetables as one by one their workers fell under the fertility spell.

The women themselves - all of whom live and work in the Helston and Lizard area - are baffled too, especially one who became pregnant after doctors told her she would not be able to conceive naturally.

Allied's care co-ordinator, Clare Spencer, said there had been a mixture of planned and unplanned babies, but nobody could explain why they had all come at once.

She said: "At one point it was just one woman getting pregnant after another. It has caused big problems getting all the care cover sorted, but we're delighted for all the mothers. It has been great fun ringing round to check up on how everyone's getting on, and having all the babies coming in to the office.

"The first member of staff got pregnant at the end of 2006 and literally from then on there were carers falling pregnant. Last year in the summer to autumn time we had five at all once.

"It has meant we've recruited some new staff, which is always useful, and the mothers are gradually starting to come back to work now so things are getting easier."

Among those who have given birth are Julie Read, who had baby Gracie, Rosie Salmon with Isaac, Georgina Kew with Harry and Zara Polson with Freya.

Other new mums include Bev Wren and also Sophie Buluilakeba, who gave birth earlier this month.

Four of the workers are currently pregnant, among them Lisa Davies and 24-year-old Sarah Mua, business co-ordinator at the firm, who was told she could not conceive naturally but is due to give birth within the next few weeks.

Mrs Mua found out she was pregnant only days before she was due to meet with fertility experts and then had to bring forward her wedding when she found out she too had been hit by the mystical fertility wand.

She said: "I did get told that I would probably not be able to conceive naturally and I was due to see a fertility specialist in February.

"I was really shocked - I'd been feeling a bit weird but because I'd been told the summer before I didn't think I'd be pregnant.

"I was due to get married in August and my first thought was my wedding dress might not fit."

Allied Healthcare, which has its headquarters in Penzance, provides care in the community for the elderly.

Care co-ordinator Miss Spencer, who joked that she herself was worried about falling under the pregnancy spell, said many of their clients had enjoyed being visited by the carers and their new babies.

She said: "A lot of the elderly women had the same joke when they heard about the pregnancies. They kept saying it must be something in the water and that they had better not drink it."

She added that, bizarrely, no staff working for the company in other areas of Cornwall had fallen pregnant since 2006.