We don’t quite know what to make of this one.
Our most quotable of hospital CEOs is now saying that the erotic bestseller 50 Shades of Grey may be responsible for a mini baby boom in Windsor, Ontario.
Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj has been all over the media recently after speculating a 30 per cent jump in births over a six-day period may have something to do with the publishing nine months earlier of E. L. James’ steamy novel.
“If you back up the calendar, the book of 50 Shades of Grey was released worldwide and in Canada earlier this year,” he told the media. “There is talk around the hospital that it is possible that the release of that book has something to do with the increase in births.”
Our national broadcaster – the CBC — took this story very seriously, consulting a sexuality professor and a demographer. The professor suggests Musyj could be right while the demographer is more cautious given there is an overall “echo effect” – the children of boomers are now having kids of their own.
Of course, the question is, why only in Windsor? Are women there just particularly fast readers and subsequently ahead of the trend? Is 50 Shades of Grey doing for the Windsor library’s circulation what the book is doing for that of its readers?
Musyj also suggests that blackouts and big collective agreements may also spur mini-baby booms at his hospital.
You might say the results are a secondary labour movement.
OPSEU Diablogue 
Hi. Thanks for the blog again. Couple clarifications/explanations to fill in the blanks.
1. Everytime we have a birth at the hospital we play a small segment of Brahms’ lullaby over the speaker system. A local media enquired about the fact they heard that the lullabye was playing alot lately. We confirmed this fact and actually provided the statistics of the 30% increase in births.
2. When asked why we thought why the number was so high (considering Windsor’s population growth is stagnant overall) internally and internationally there has been speculation that the book(s) will have an impact on births. The last of the series was released in the States in March and the first in Canada in April 2012. When one does the math….
3. Needless to say this is not scientific and has resulted in some smiles and laughs among our community at a time we are in need of some more smiles/laughs.
In any event, thanks for adding to this story going “viral”.
And of course we now know there is much more value to a good collective agreement beyond what’s in the document. Favorite comment we viewed on-line: it’s not the book that is causing this, it’s the sex.
touché
Imagine if Windsor Regional Hospital settled all of their outstanding collective agreements, the Hospital could then expect the birth rate to jump up 50 per cent. We could start a new launch and name it “50 Shades of Pay.”
We may take you up on that Harold. : )