
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, December 7, 1993                   TAG: 9312070141
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

STORMS SPAWN A BABY BLIZZARD

Northern Virginia hospitals are reporting a flurry of births nine months after one of the century's worst winter storms hit the Washington area.

Doctors at Reston Hospital Center are delivering as many as 10 babies a day, twice the usual number for this time of year, and Fairfax Hospital officials say births there have risen noticeably this month.

The storm dropped up to a foot of snow, whipped into big drifts by high winds. Schools, businesses and airports were closed.

Mike and Ellen Pattisall of Alexandria own a couple of four-wheel-drive vehicles, so they had no excuse for staying inside. But they stayed inside anyway and, as a result, son Cameron was born Thursday at Fairfax Hospital.

"We stayed home and built a fire, and we must have been enjoying ourselves," said Ellen Pattisall, 32, still groggy Friday after 13 hours of labor. "We spent some of our time working on the renovation of our house. I guess we were working on a few other things."

Fairfax Hospital spokeswoman Jane Albright said baby bonanzas just makes sense. "Hey, you're snowed in. What do you do?" Albright asked. "You make babies."

Although sex does not always cause pregnancy, Albright speculates the storm may have discouraged birth control, too. "It's possible a lot of people ran out of the pill and said, `To hell with it,' " she said.

by CNB