What determines the time we are born? Is it pure chance? Is there an hour at which more births occur? Are more babies born in the morning, in the afternoon or at night? To find answers to these questions, Zan Armstrong, an engineer and data analyst, has done a thorough analysis of birth patterns in the United States.
Routines dominate our life in practically all our daily activities, but if there is something that cannot be foreseen, it is when, far from what time, your baby will be born (if we talk about a spontaneous birth, of course). But as we can see below, in light of the results of the analysis, not always random in these matters, but other factors are involved, such as how to be born. Let's see some curiosities about the hours of birth.
The 8:00 AM peak
Every day of the week in the morning, except Saturday and Sunday, is recorded a great peak at 8 AM. For what is this? Why is this pattern repeated?
Recall that it is an analysis based on birth data in the United States, where 32 percent of deliveries are by caesarean section, 18 percent are induced births and the remaining 50 percent are natural spontaneous vaginal deliveries (without induction).
These are data that we could extrapolate to other countries where almost half of the deliveries are by caesarean section such as Mexico or Spain, where the rate reaches 25 percent, well above 10-15 percent that according to WHO should not be exceeded.
If we disaggregate the data according to the type of birth, the schedules are very different, but by combining the three ways of birth a global pattern is created whose main data are:
- The highest peak at 8:00 AM and the hour with the highest number of births is lMondays between 8 and 9 AM.
- A second, slightly smaller peak is recorded, around 1 PM
- There are fewer births during the night and on the weekend
Births during working hours
Strengthening these data, but in our country, El Parto es Nuestro has published a very revealing report last year, entitled "Born in Labor Hours", where this trend is evident: caesarean sections are induced and programmed to prevent them from falling into a holiday or weekend.
Depending on the type of delivery
If we talk about caesarean sections, the peak is clearly observed around 7-8 in the morning and another around noon. Then a plateau is recorded in the afternoon and a small peak at five in the afternoon before nightfall, when there are almost no caesarean sections.
With this type of birth, they are born approximately 10 times more babies per minute during the morning than at night. This is because, although some emergency C-sections are performed during births that begin spontaneously, most are scheduled for first thing in the morning.
In the induced deliveries no sharp peaks are recorded, but a constant between 1 PM and 6 PM. Here 220 percent more births are recorded during the day compared to the hours with less activity, between 6 and 7 AM, since no births are induced during the night. Instead, it is done in the morning so that births occur throughout the day, registering more activity in the afternoon hours.
In the spontaneous births, the pattern is completely different. There are no peaks of greater activity, but it is homogeneous both during the day and at night. If we let nature do its thing, without interventions, between 20-30 percent more babies are born per minute between 6:45 am and 6 pm at night.
More curiosities about births:
- In September there are between 5 and 10 percent more births than in January.
- Meanwhile in a typical Tuesday, twelve thousand babies are born In the United States, a typical Saturday is born eight thousand.
- He sixty percent of babies are born during the day, between 6 AM and 6 PM.
- 3.5 times more babies are born at 8:00 AM, being the most common minute to be born, while the least common day of the day it's at 03:09 AM
- The day of the week with fewer births is Sunday between 2 and 3 AM.
- There's a birth descent on thanksgiving weekend, as well as December 31.
- There are fewer births in the first six months of the year and The months with the highest number of births are from July to October.
