There is a whiff of carpe diem in the air, as Americans slowly return to normal life while vowing never to forget the lessons taught by the coronavirus pandemic: seize the day and savour the moment, it could all be gone tomorrow.

For many, these pandemic learnings have affected attitudes to procreation. So far there’s been no sign of the baby boom predicted soon after the US went into lockdown in March last year. In fact, figures released this month show tentative signs that coronavirus may have accelerated a pre-existing trend towards fewer births.

Provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Centre for Health Statistics show US fertility last year was at a record low, at 55.8 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, down 4 per cent from 2019. But since only December births could have included those babies conceived after the start of lockdown, demographers say it’s too soon to say what impact the virus has had.