Image copyright Banner Health Image caption Some of the nurses gave a news conference on Friday and joked that they had schemed together to get Christmas off

Pregnancy might just be catching at a hospital in Mesa, Arizona, where 16 nurses are expecting at once.

That's 10% of the nursing staff in the intensive care unit, and patients have started to notice the high pregnancy rate, the nurses said.

At a news conference, the women joked that there must be something in the water, or that maybe it was a joint plan for Christmas holidays off.

The group's first birth is expected in September and the last in January.

Rochelle Sherman, who is just over a month away from giving birth, said: "I don't think we realised just how many of us were pregnant until we started a Facebook group.

"It's like we had some kind of pact going on."

Her colleague Jolene Garrow thanked colleagues who have stepped in to do jobs pregnant women cannot do - such as dealing with contagious illnesses like tuberculosis and shingles, or performing some treatments for cancer patients.

The staff will throw a joint baby shower for all the women next week, before they start going on their 12 weeks of maternity leave.

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