Can women really delay their baby’s birth by simply willing it? Yale researchers noticed an interesting blip in U.S. birth rates on October 31st. WaHaHaHa! [cue the scary music].
Lead author of the study, Becca Levy, is an associate professor of epidemiology and psychology at Yale. The “blip” was a 5.3 percent decrease in spontaneous births (as opposed to scheduled c-sections – which, for the record drops nearly 17 percent) on October 31st. Up until that date, there appeared to be no statical anomaly, with one exception. On Valentine’s Day, there is a nearly 4 percent increase in spontaneous births. Hmmmmm….
Levy says, “The study suggests that beliefs arising from our culture can have a greater impact on physical functioning than we might suspect.”
So can women even determine the day of the week they give birth? Maybe. According to this chart, Tuesday and Friday are the most popular.
As for things we can’t really control too much, what do you think the most popular date of birth is? Did you guess nine months after New Year’s Eve? You’re right – October 5th. The least most popular day is May 22nd. Let’s see nine months before that is about August 22nd, give or take. Perhaps it’s the heat.
With regard to the study, I can attest to the fact that when a woman puts her mind to something, she can do anything (even delay birth for 24 hours).
