Pregnancy Is Actually Contagious, According to Study - Fairygodboss

Pregnancy Is Actually Contagious, According to Study - Fairygodboss After you, your friends and your colleagues reach a certain age threshold (which will vary depending on location, lifestyle, and other related factors), youll likely notice an interesting phenomenon everyone suddenly seems to get pregnant at the same time.Whether its a deluge of baby shower invites from within your social circle or numerous simultaneous maternity-leave requests from your coworkers, these signifiers reflect an intriguing scientific principle, recently proven by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (ADD Health). Youre not imagining things. To a certain extent, pregnancy actually is contagious.Scientists performed a survey of 1720 women from the mid 1990s to the late 2000s, honing in on pairs of high school friends who remained close into adulthood. By analyzing data, the researchers discovered a direct (yet unsustained) contagion link between these women and their respective planned pre gnancies. We found this effect to be short-term and inverse U-shaped an individuals risk of childbearing starts increasing after a friends childbearing, reaches a peak around two years later, then decrease, explained the research team. ADD Health coined a phrase to explain this effect the fertility influence.The researchers attribute the fertility influence to three factors social learning (the idea that women will feel a stronger draw to motherhood once they see a friend handling it well), social influence (women may get a sense of FOMO from their reproducing pals), and cost-sharing (if a friend has a baby shortly before you, youll be able to benefit from her help with childcare, supply-borrowing and activity-planning).Researchers spotted a direct correlation between the closeness of a friendship and its likelihood of affecting pregnancy decisions, indicating that while you may become subconsciously influenced by your work wifes choice to get preggers, random Karen in Accountings h appy announcement wont do much to sway you. Also, the test revealed that the contagion spread by the fertility influence doesnt impact sibling relationships. However, researchers found an explanation for this gap, suggesting that in todays individualized societies, chosen friends may be equally or more important than siblings and other family members.In conclusion, your everyone is having a baby right now feeling isnt based on paranoia there actually is a form of contagion at play here.