Do people just hold off going to the hospital on those days?
In: 32
Most babies in the western world are induced or done by caesarean, so these are unlikely to occur on Christmas or New years day as there are fewer staff around to carry out the procedures.
It’s similar for most holidays.
It’s also similar on weekends, and September 11th.
1/3 of babies are born by C-Section in the US
Over 1/4 of births in the US are medically induced, meaning they can be scheduled.
Doctors are people like the rest of us, and don’t like to work on holidays or weekends.
Depending on the country, around 20% – 30% of births are by c section. Unless it’s an emergency, a c section won’t be done on Christmas or New Years (or the weekend).
Another 20% of births will be induced, again, doctors won’t induce births on holidays or weekends.
A portion of babies will be born when they are born, except for the fact that there are seasonal highs and lows with conception and birth, these days are “random” over a given time span.
A portion of births are scheduled in advance within a window. This can be for any number of reasons – a c-section, an inducement, etc. If this is the case, then unless there’s an emergency, doctors aren’t too keen to schedule one on Christmas or New Years. These are also holidays across multiple parts of the world not just in one country. Many other holidays, even if doctors typically don’t schedule for them, are often rotating holidays on a calendar (such as Lunar New Year or Eid al-Fitr), don’t affect many countries (such as Fourth of July or Bastille Day) or both (Thanksgiving, Passover). So on a given iteration of a holiday there may be a below average number of births, but they won’t affect the actual calendar day for birthdays in the same way.
In my case, my mum refused to go to hospital on Christmas Day when she went into labour. She didn’t with my brother, who was born new years day.
Spring bank holidays seemed to be frisky time for my parents
A lot of births nowadays are scheduled and induced. So if you get to pick the day why would you pick a holiday when you could be at home relaxing (in terms of the doctor)
So it’s really only the “oh shit the baby is coming and coming now” babies that are born in the big holidays.
No doctors schedule inductions or pre-scheduled C-sections those days, which even if only a small percentage of total births may still be enough to make them statistically less common than other days.
I think the rarest birthday is Feb. 29th.
I have 3 friends who have Christmas birthdays. One with a New Years b-day. It’s not that rare, I dont think. Although I’m sure lower than other days.
My oldest child was C-section due to a medical emergency. For the second child the ob told me (in October) to go to the hospital and schedule the C-section one-two weeks before the Jan 5 due date. The scheduling nurse at the hospital said all dates in the last two weeks of December had been booked for months due to people wanting to get the income tax deduction for the child in the earlier year regardless of whether a C-section was required or when in Jan their baby was actually due.
Fun fact: there was a doc in Canada, Paul Shuen, who without patients’ knowledge or consent induced labor so that they’d deliver on the weekend, as he was paid more for each delivery on weekends. Induced labor is more dangerous than natural labor. One of the ways they caught him was that such an unusually large percentage of his deliveries were on weekends, far more than chance. It is not known how many women or babies suffered complications or death due to this.
https://www.thecut.com/2019/07/paul-shuen-toronto-medical-malpractice.html
https://torontolife.com/city/personal-privacy-versus-publics-right-know/
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