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Births decrease on Halloween, study finds
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The Toronto Star-Michael Woods-
Halloween is already a hectic day for parents, thanks to costume stress, sugar overdoses and scared children. Now, a Yale University study suggests many pregnant women want to keep their child’s birthday out of that mix.
The study found a significant decrease in births on Halloween — both spontaneous and by Caesarian section — in the United States over an 11-year period. It found an increase in births on Valentine’s Day.
The results raise the possibility that pregnant women can control the timing of spontaneous births. While other studies have looked at how psychological factors can affect pregnancies, this one is unique in that it examines their effect on birth dates.
It’s not uncommon for pregnant women to miss their due dates by a week or two, but it’s unknown what exactly determines variability within that span, said Becca Levy, associate professor of epidemiology and psychology who led the study.
“Cultural factors could play a role in pushing that date forwards or backwards,” she told the Star.
The study found spontaneous births decreased 5.3 per cent on Halloween, but increased 3.6 per cent on Valentine’s Day.
It looked at all births in the United States within a two-week window — a week before and a week after —surrounding each holiday over an 11-year period. That amounted to 1.7 million births in the Valentine’s Day window and 1.8 million in the Halloween window.
The study highlights the potential importance of a mother’s psychological will in childbirth, Levy said, adding that the findings could also have an impact on hospital staffing. It could also make health-care workers more aware that cultural factors can influence pregnancy, she said.
Scheduled births were heavily influenced by the holidays, according to the study. Caesarian births jumped 12.1 per cent on Valentine’s Day, but decreased 16.9 per cent on Halloween.
The research team selected widely recognized holidays, so there wasn’t much variation between racial or cultural groups, Levy said.
Halloween, a day whose imagery includes themes of death and fear “is probably counter to the kinds of associations people want to have with having a child,” she said.
But Laura Day, a social worker in Toronto who’s celebrating her 26th birthday on Monday, said she doesn’t buy into the negative stigma surrounding Halloween.
“As a kid it was awesome because I would go to school and I’d bring a cake, and there was always a party on my birthday,” she said, adding her mother was happy to have had her on Halloween.
Day also has the luxury of combining celebrations: when she was 11 years old, she dressed up as a cake.
“There are no drawbacks. It’s not like Christmas, when people only give you one present.”
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