During the different phases of the COVID‐19 pandemic, conception trends in developed countries varied in profoundly different ways. Scholars have proposed a variety of explanations for these differences, often related to the particular socioeconomic context and social groups of a given nation, highlighting the need for country‐specific, in‐depth analyses. Italy was one of the countries where the number of conceptions resulting in a birth significantly decreased during the first wave of COVID‐19 (March‐May 2020) and again during April‐August 2021. Italy also stands out for its great internal diversity, especially in the first wave of the pandemic. As individual data are not available, fully analysing all the possible causes of the variations in conceptions that occurred in Italy during the pandemic is not possible. However, using national monthly series on deaths, births, and induced abortions by age of mother, contraceptives' sales, and monthly data on births and deaths in the 107 provinces, we explore some Italian peculiarities. We speculate about the plausibility of some interpretations of the monthly fluctuations in conceptions and contraceptive sales, in particular on the effect of the forced separation between noncohabiting partners during the different types of lockdown and on the uncertainty that may have affected couples in the areas hardest hit by Covid‐19 and during the first part of 2021.

中文翻译：

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探讨 2020 年至 2022 年 COVID-19 对意大利出生的影响


在 COVID-19 大流行的不同阶段，发达国家的受孕趋势差异很大。学者们对这些差异提出了多种解释，通常与特定国家的特定社会经济背景和社会群体有关，强调需要针对具体国家进行深入分析。意大利是第一波 COVID-19 期间（2020 年 3 月至 5 月）和 2021 年 4 月至 8 月期间受孕数量显着下降的国家之一。意大利还因其巨大的内部多样性而脱颖而出，尤其是在第一波大流行中。由于无法获得个人数据，因此不可能全面分析大流行期间意大利发生的受孕差异的所有可能原因。然而，通过使用按母亲年龄划分的全国死亡、出生和人工流产月度序列、避孕药具销售量以及 107 个省的出生和死亡月度数据，我们探讨了意大利的一些特点。我们推测对受孕和避孕药具销售每月波动的一些解释的合理性，特别是对不同类型的封锁期间非同居伴侣之间被迫分居的影响，以及可能影响受灾最严重地区的夫妇的不确定性的影响Covid-19 和 2021 年上半年。