clipped from: www.wral.com About 19,000 soldiers returned to Fort Stewart, Georgia, in the first months of 2006, and the hospital there saw a baby boom nine months later, delivering more than 100 babies a month, compared with 76 per month the previous year. Fort Hood in Texas saw deliveries peak at 289 in March 2006, well above the 213 average.
"We knew that any time the soldiers are deployed, we knew the one thing they liked to do best when they come home is get a little bit of loving," she said.
In many cases, the father was back in Iraq by the time the baby arrived; many soldiers have heard their children's first cries via cell phone.
About 20 percent of the new mothers at Fort Campbell are active-duty soldiers themselves, Adams said.
New mothers are exempt from deployment for four months. But after that, husband-and-wife soldiers have to arrange for child care if they are both sent overseas. Often, relatives or close friends take care of the children.