It’s a Zoom baby boom: One newborn and five more lockdown babies on the way… in the SAME street!
- Clouds Hill Avenue in Bristol is experiencing a baby boom with five on the way
- The mothers to be have even been enjoying yoga classes together – via Zoom
- Jenni Parkinson admits she and partner Ric Ventura may have sparked a trend
It’s the street where residents clearly haven’t been idle during the months of lockdown.
For Clouds Hill Avenue in Bristol is experiencing a baby boom, with one arriving yesterday and another five on the way by summer.
The mothers to be have even been enjoying yoga classes together – via Zoom.
Trendsetters: Jenni Parkinson and partner Ric Ventura with new arrival Summer
Clouds Hill Avenue in Bristol
Due in May: Caroline Hardman, 33
The first to become pregnant, community music organiser Jenni Parkinson, admits she and partner Ric Ventura may have sparked a trend.
The 37-year-old, who gave birth to daughter Summer – her second child – yesterday, said the 200-yard-long street now has a ‘ready-made community’.
She added: ‘There are lots of young couples starting families because it’s an amazing location. I think it’s maybe a massive coincidence. Or maybe I started a trend?’
The mothers-to-be all lived on the same side of the street when they became pregnant.
May: First-timer Catherine Gilmore, 31
July: Artist Ellie Shipman, 31
August: Yoga instructor Ailie Tam, 36
Artist Ellie Shipman, 31, who has since moved with husband Alex Blogg to another house nearby, is expecting her baby in late July. She said she is ‘really excited to meet all the little ones as they arrive throughout the year’.
Caroline Hardman, 33, who has a one-and-a-half year-old daughter, Ruth, is expecting her second child in May.
Her husband Matt said the couple had been busy during lockdown: ‘We have been running, we have been baking bread… and we have been making babies.’
July: Mum-of-one Victoria Bromley, 36
Ailie Tam, expecting her second child in August, is teaching the other mothers-to-be yoga via video chatting service Zoom. The 36-year-old said: ‘We feel very lucky because we only moved here last March and we were really hoping that the community would [be friendly] but until you move in you don’t know. When hopefully restrictions are lifted a bit more, it’s going to be really fun.’
Catherine Gilmore, 31, expecting her first baby with partner Michael Malay in May, said: ‘There were women popping up every day – or it felt like it – saying they were pregnant.
‘It’s really lovely, particularly as a first-time mum, not having any of the baby groups or anything that would normally be happening. It’s really good having these families on the street and the babies that will be hanging out at the park. It’ll be like a little festival out there.’
Victoria Bromley, 36, expecting her second child with husband David Hume in July, said there must be ‘something in the water’. She added: ‘Everyone came into 2021 hoping that it would be different, that there would be more positivity. And it certainly feels like that for us.’