Are more babies born at night?

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Hi,

First off I want to say that I always learn so much from everyone who posts here. I am in the middle of a nursing career transition and hope to post here as an OB nurse myself someday:)

Now my question(s): I am interviewing for an L&D position and it will be on weekend nights (two 12 hr shifts). I'd always heard an old wives tale that more babies are born at night. From your experience, is this true? Are nights very busy in L&D because of deliveries or less staff? Is starting on nights tough for someone with no L&D experience (I am coming in from LTC). How crazy are twelve hour shifts in L&D? (The orientation is from 12 to 16 weeks learning OR, postpartum and L&D). How many couplets do you care for in postpartum?

Thanks for any replies!

Specializes in Obstetrics, M/S, Psych.
I have 6 children, 1 was born at sunrise, 2 just after 12 noon, 2 just after midnight, and Daniel, I'm trying to remember, I think it was sometime in the evening. They were all natural home deliveries, no drugs.:)

I remember a midwife telling of the theory that babies being born at night was a kind of preservation of the species type of occurance as the pre-historic moms would venture into the caves in the early evening to labor and give birth as the the natural cycle of hormones encouraged that. Also, evening was the safer time and allowed for a quiet and more relaxed atmosphere in which to give birth. I thought it was an interesting concept. Seems your body perferred the night hours 2/3 of the time to do it's work.

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Babies seem to be born just about any time they want to. It just seems that they come more at night than during the day. It also seems that they really decide to come about the time the nurse wants to go to lunch, supper, or go home after being there for 12 hrs and there isn't enough help for the transition from one shift to the other. Babies--ya gotta love em!

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Specializes in Babies, peds, pain management.

Same at my place, inductions, scheduled and unscheduled c/s fill the days and

early evenings. Every once in awhile we actually have a natural labor and birth

(not necessarily w/o drugs) but started on its own.

Weather (stormy or icy) seems to affect births more than the full moon around here. The full moon usually brings out the "weird" stuff...the 57 yr old who claimed she was pregnant, had an u/s and then wanted to know what we did with baby...the teen whose mother had her take mineral oil to induce labor and delivered alot of s*** instead (delivered 2 wks later)...the woman with abd pains, didn't know she was pregnant...the usual assorted nuts.

Life is never dull in OB.

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same here.. when it is stormy or raining out, we are ususally busy- alot of pt's come in w/their water broke. They say it has something to do w/the barometric pressure... which i guess means we will be busy this wk d/t tropical storm arlene.. and full moon bring's 'em in, too.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

In Oklahoma I observed more labor and SROM's beginning with the precipitious drops in barometric pressure----the full moon had no such predictible effect. I used to dread spring because of the fast-changing violent weather and the problems it would bring us in OB. Lots of preterm labor, too......

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In Oklahoma here and would have to agree with the drop in barometer assessment.... seems like we go into a SROM free for all when a good storm system moves in.

Otherwise, more babies are born in the daytime... due to inductions and scheduled c/s.

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Specializes in OB.

I agree with the others... storms = lots of babies being born.

I still say babies come whenever they want to, but if we've got a lot of moms in L&D who don't deliver during the day, we expect to be busy at night.

Often, we're super busy during the summer. Some of us attribute that to being shorter staffed because a lot of nurses are on vacation, but I read somewhere that according to the American Pregnancy Association, more births occur in August and September. This is because more women attempt to conceive in the winter because they can get "caught up in the spirit" of the holidays. Around this time women are with their families more and are just plain in the mood to have more children.

Usually on holidays, we're really slow during the day, and then pick up shortly after dinner time. I've heard nurses joke that it's because moms are having a good time with their families and friends, eat a lot during the day and end up going into labor! Wondering if this is really true... does anyone have any info to back this up? We're super busy around certain holidays because people want to have their baby on that particular holiday. It's especially true on Christmas or New Years Day. I remember we were so busy around the millennium... everyone wanted a Millennium Baby. Mom's were calling in to see if they could be induced, those in L&D tried to hold off, so they could deliver at or shortly after midnight... it was chaos! So many people miscalculated and we were delivering tons of babies months prior to and even months after that year!

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Specializes in Physical Rehabilitation.

Usually on holidays, we're really slow during the day, and then pick up shortly after dinner time. I've heard nurses joke that it's because moms are having a good time with their families and friends, eat a lot during the day and end up going into labor! Wondering if this is really true... does anyone have any info to back this up?

I was told by a few L&D nurses they are busy after holiday meals because moms eat too much sodium, get dehydrated and come in with contractions. They said this also happens on real hot days in the summer - dehydration leading to contractions.

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