Are Most Babies Born at the Same Time of Day?
Some people believe that most babies are born around the same time of day – between 6 and 10 in the morning. However, variability may be due to how women give birth, as well as other external or internal factors.
This is a highly debated issue that may produce confusion. We’ll take a look at this topic below.
What determines if babies are born at the same time of day?
Experts agree that the type of birth that a mother chooses is a determining factor when it comes to time of birth.
In the past, there was little intervention available for birthing mothers. As a result, most births took place during the night.
Some scientists claim that this was because the night hours were when there were people available to tend to and help women in labor.
However, other factors that may explain this phenomenon include the following:
C-section births
In this day and age, a large number of births are planned ahead of time. This planning revolves around the health of both mother and baby.
When it comes to C-section births, they usually take place between 6 and 10am. The most popular time is at 8am.
As for days of the week, most C-sections occur between Monday and Friday.
This is due to work routines or schedules that prevent the delivery from occurring during the weekend or on a holiday. It’s also less likely to occur during the night, unless a complication arises.
Induced birth
As for births involving induced labor, the timeframe within which children are born changes. Here, most women give birth between 1pm and 7pm.
What’s the explanation for this? The majority of these mothers are given medicine or undergo induction techniques in the morning.
These actions help to produce contractions throughout the day that eventually lead to birth in the afternoon.
Spontaneous births
Spontaneous births are less frequent, and times of birth are completely unpredictable. In other words, no one can claim that most of these babies are born at the same time of day.
However, doctors point out an increase of birth activity during the night. It’s believed that melatonin (a hormone produced in absence of light) activates hormones like oxytocin, which triggers labor.
Therefore, you may observe babies being born at 4 in the morning. If any complication arises or the process slows down for various reasons, then chances are better the baby will be born the next morning.
With spontaneous birth, it’s also impossible to predict what day of the week a baby will be born – although some studies say more babies are born on Tuesday. However, nothing has been proven.
More interesting facts about times of birth
It’s clear that there is no clear way to determine whether most babies are born at the same time. That being said, there are specific statistics according the type of birth a women ends up having.
Over time, the experiences of midwives and OB/GYNs have led to the gathering of interesting data. For example, an estimated 30% of births occur in the months of January, September and October.
Furthermore, 60% of births occur during the day – that is, between 6am and 6pm. It’s also interesting that in the months of November and December, the number of births goes down considerably.
Finally, the day of the week in which more babies are born is Sunday .
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Fernández, I. O. (2009). Lactancia después de la cesárea. Psiquiatra Infanto-Juvenil Hospital de Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda, Madrid
- Golembiewski Mendes, M., Helena Marin, A., da Silva Pereira, C., & Centenaro Levandowski, D. (2015). ¡Llegó la hora! Expectativas y experiencias de parto de adolescentes embarazadas. Revista de Psicología
- OMS, & UNICEF. (2015). Todos los recién nacidos. Todas las mujeres todos los niños