Record-breaking number of babies born at HealthPark Medical Center

Author: Camila Pereira Writer: Paul Dolan, Joey Pellegrino
Published: Updated:
Record breaking number of babies born in 24 hours at HealthPark Medical Center. CREDIT: WINK News

A record-breaking number of babies born in one day: HealthPark Medical Center delivered 30 newborns in just 24 hours on July 11, breaking the previous record of 29 babies.

“At the end of those normal days when you’re like, ‘Oh… OK… how many deliveries did we do today?'” said Lee Health labor nurse Tina Winkler.

While the answer is typically between 15 and 17, that number spiked on July 11.

“It was, ‘Wow… we’ve had a record-breaking 30 babies,'” said Winkler.

When the record-breaking day was over, a total of 17 boys and 13 girls were born. After a little bit of investigating, the nurses and their boss came to an interesting conclusion: Nearly nine months ago, Hurricane Ian hit Southwest Florida.

“It could be related, yes, but no babies were named Ian that we know of,” said Dr. Joyce Arand.

“We saw a big increase in numbers nine months post-Irma, and I think now we’re definitely seeing the same thing after Ian,” Winkler said.

Tuesday also proved to be another busy day full of deliveries. The nurses wonder if there’s another record-breaking day on the horizon. In fact, one of HealthPark’s own labor nurses went into labor herself on Tuesday.

“She’s up on our unit right now, so we want to give a huge shoutout to Jenna Moore and her family and her sweet kiddos because she’s about to have one of the most adorable blessings in our unit…And I have to get back to her,” said one of the Lee Health labor nurses.

HealthPark delivers an average of 6,100 babies annually. Among the 30 babies born on July 11, there were no sets of twins.

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