In May 1951, Sylvia F. Porter, a columnist in the New York Post, used the term "Boom" to refer to the phenomenon of increased births in post war America. She wrote:
Take the 3,548,000 babies born in 1950. Bundle them into a batch, bounce them all over the bountiful land that is America. What do you get? Boom. The biggest, boomiest boom ever known in history.
The end of World War II brought a baby boom to many countries in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia. People disagree as to the precise beginning and ending dates of the post-war baby boom, but the range most commonly accepted is 1946 to 1964. In 1946, live births in the U.S. surged from 222,721 in January to 339,499 in October. By the end of the 1940s, about 32 million babies had been born, compared with 24 million in the 1930s.
After the war, couples reunited and returned to traditional roles. Returning male soldiers re-entered the workforce, while many women left wartime work to concentrate on child-bearing and child-rearing. Marriage became again a cultural and career norm for most women ... and the result was babies. Lot's of them!
One theory about the end of the baby boom is that the as the biological capacity of boomer parents took its course. Women are fertile only into their mid-forties. Do the math! A woman married in her mid-to-late twenties after the war ended in 1945 would remain fertile for another 20 years or so.
In addition to the biological factor was the advent and mainstream use of birth control pills. It was 1960 when the FDA first approved ... doesn't seem that long ago!
Well, we are here now, and are 78 million strong ... baby boomers UNITE! Let's take the world by storm and show them just what we are made of.
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