Fright night just got a little bit spookier. Pregnant women have their own little trick on Halloween 鈥� they seem able to time the delivery of their baby to avoid giving birth on this day.
at Yale School of Public Health and colleagues examined 1.8 million US birth records from 1996 to 2006, and found that birth rates dropped by 11.3 per cent on 31 October, when compared with the two-week window surrounding the date. The significant declines in deliveries on Halloween applied to natural births as well as scheduled caesarean and induced births.
鈥淭he study raises the possibility that the assumption underlying the term 鈥榮pontaneous birth鈥�, namely, that births are outside the control of pregnant women, is erroneous,鈥� says Levy. She says a psychological influence over hormonal activity may be at work.
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鈥淲e know that hormones control birth timing, and mothers do often express a desire to give birth on a certain day,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut the process that allows those thoughts to potentially impact the timing, we don鈥檛 know.鈥� More research is needed, she says, to determine the precise ways that thoughts or desires may affect birthing hormones.
Spooky psychology
Levy suggests that Halloween鈥檚 associations with death and evil are in direct contrast with the idea of creating life and may subconsciously affect a woman鈥檚 desire to give birth.
鈥淗alloween can have pretty scary imagery of skeletons, death, devils, monsters,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 possible that death imagery is particularly salient as people are thinking about birth. [Perhaps] it evokes fear on some level.鈥�
A happier birthday
The team also examined birth rates around Valentine鈥檚 day, traditionally associated with the positive feelings of love. On 14 February, they saw an overall spike of 5聽per cent in births compared with the two-week window either side.
These findings mimic a that showed increases in scheduled births on auspicious days and decreases on inauspicious days, according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
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