Emerald's big baby bonus | Emerald News | Local News in Emerald

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A YEAR after the flood, Emerald is being inundated again.

But this time it's not water everywhere you look... it's babies.

The town is in the grip of a baby boom, with a 60% increase in births at Emerald Hospital.

So was there something special in the water that made young residents more fertile?

New mum Amanda Farrell is convinced that it can be traced back to those dark days when the town was awash.

“There were lots of babies born in October and November - nine months after the worst of the flood. You only have to walk down the street to see that.

“The floods were a massive event here and a lot of people couldn't get to work. They must have made their own fun instead.

“There wasn't a lot else to do at the time,” she said.

Amanda's son Hayden Ryan was born in mid-December at Rockhampton's Mater Hospital.

Queensland Health said yesterday Emerald Hospital had delivered 90 babies in the December quarter - a huge increase on the 57 born in the same period the previous year.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the rising number of births reflected the young population of the town.

“This is one of the issues which will be addressed by the district's health service planning which is currently underway to investigate population trends to help us plan our resource allocation to provide the best public health service to the community,” he said.

• 90 babies were born at Emerald in the last three months of 2008

• That's 60% more than the same quarter in 2007 when the hospital delivered 57 babies

• This compares to a Queensland average increase of 4.8%

• Emerald Hospital also treated more patients in its emergency department in the same period

• It treats an average of 44 people a day

• Admissions to the hospital rose 26%