Full moon this weekend

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Hi everyone. I am 37w1d pg and hoping to deliver soon!!! DS1 was born at 36w4d. I was wondering what your experience on your floor is during full moon. Is it an old wives tale or is your floor really busy with laboring moms during the full moon? This Saturday is the "supermoon" when the moon will be closer to the earth than it has been in the last 18 years. I'm a "new" grad working as a sub school nurse, so I have no L&D experience other than clinicals during school, though I really want to be and L&D nurse. Just wondering what your experience has been. Thanks!

Specializes in A myriad of specialties.
In any case, have a nice baby.

Ummm, I think all babies are nice! Your comment made me laugh my socks off! Thanks, I needed that!:clown:

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SPOILER ALERT! Sorry to be a buzz kill, I can only speak for ER's, but the "full moon = bad shift" idea has long been disproved in formal studies and careful anecdotal observations. Working in a city with a large military and government presence, we did note that the first weekend after payday was consistently the biggest trauma weekend. We also noticed that towards the end of the month all the street people were broke and came in asking for "help with detox" but as soon as their disability checks came out they didn't want help anymore.

In any case, have a nice baby.

SPOILER!!!!!:clown::clown::clown::clown:

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Specializes in pediatrics, public health.

A former roommate of mine believed that women's cycles were influenced by the moon, because when she went on a cross-country trip with a large group of women, it seemed that nearly all the women in the group had their periods within one week of either a full moon, or a new moon.

Spoil-sport me pointed out that, since lunar cycles are 29.5 days long (from full moon to full moon), this means there's 14.75 days between a full moon and a new moon -- which means that ALL events are at most a week away from either a full moon or a new moon. If you want to attribute an event to the cycle of the moon, it's pretty easy to do, even though there's been lots of studies disproving this notion.

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy and with the birth, whenever it does happen -- and congratulations on the soon-to-be new arrival!

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Hi everyone. I am 37w1d pg and hoping to deliver soon!!!

Besides, you don't want a 37-weeker! Hope for a big, healthy, 38+ weeker that doesn't have any problems staying awake to eat and clearing out the jaundice!

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Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

But it's more fun to believe in the full moon theory! So let's go with that! :D

Great thread. :)

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Our floor seems to be cuh-razy regardless of where Lady Moon is in her cycle. I will agree that I've seen it be much crazier around bad weather than around full moons. But I will also admit to inwardly groaning on my way to work when it's raining AND there's a full moon hanging in the sky. Old habits die hard, what can I say? :)

At my place, Feb-Apr are the slowest months and from Sept til November, we are busting at the seams. All the babies conceived between Christmas & Valentines Day decide to pop out. :rolleyes:

Best wishes on your delivery!

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SPOILER ALERT! Sorry to be a buzz kill, I can only speak for ER's, but the "full moon = bad shift" idea has long been disproved in formal studies and careful anecdotal observations. Working in a city with a large military and government presence, we did note that the first weekend after payday was consistently the biggest trauma weekend. We also noticed that towards the end of the month all the street people were broke and came in asking for "help with detox" but as soon as their disability checks came out they didn't want help anymore.

In any case, have a nice baby.

Thanks, I hope I have a nice baby too. In any case, I hope I don't have a traumatic ER birth, but thanks for your input.

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They actually did a study about it, and found there was no difference.

The reason people THINK there is a difference is due to a phenomenon called "confirmation bias"

Scientific studies, however, have failed to find any significant correlation between the full moon and number of births (Kelly and Martens 1994; Martens et al.1988 ). In 1991, Benski and Gerin reported that they had analyzed birthdays of 4,256 babies born in a clinic in France and "found them equally distributed throughout the synodic (phase) lunar cycle" (Kelly, et al. 1996: 19). In 1994, Italian researchers Periti and Biagiotti reported on their study of 7,842 spontaneous deliveries over a 5-year period at a clinic in Florence. They found "no relationship between moon phase and number of spontaneous deliveries" (ibid.).

Thanks for your well referenced post! Still it's fun to think about.

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Sweet adolescent jesus... prepare for chaos!

This is the best quote I've seen in a while!!

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Specializes in Developmental Disabilities and Telemetry/Cardiac.

Supermoon, huh? I'm glad I'm off all weekend! :yeah:

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Specializes in Labor/Delivery, Pediatrics, Peds ER.

Guess I'm a case of confirmation bias, as when I worked ER, they warned me, and when I worked OB, they warned me. Everyone would arrive groaning. (The RNs, that is, LOL) And very often it would be a crazier than usual time with more admissions than usual.

We were in the central area - no coastlines nearby!

Hope everything goes wonderfully for you!

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