8:00am It seems to be the magic moment of the day when babies are born. Yes, babies are born during every hour of every day, but statistics are all pointing to 8:00am as being the busiest hour of the birthing day. Data Analyst Zan Armstrong has configured the numbers and the Scientific American has published the findings. In the United States, it is 3.3 times more common to have a baby born at 8:00am than any other hour of the day, with the evening being the least common time of day to give birth.  It was also found that weekdays are much more common than weekends to have a baby, with Tuesday morning’s being the busiest on the maternity floor. But why? You guessed it. This is when the United States’ birth intervention rates are coming into play.  Over 32% of births are c-sections, and another 18% are induced labors. Only 50% of women are allowed to go into labor naturally, without an intervention to begin labor, and of these women, most are influenced to use medical intervention throughout their labors, which can alter the time of delivery. If you take out all of the medical intervention and allow birth to happen spontaneously, it was found that birth occur most commonly between 6:45am-6:00pm. Yes, that is an almost 12-hour window, but it is still interesting that the body naturally labors after a night of rest!

Here’s the basic breakdown of birth times based on method of delivery: Spontaneous Labor (without intervention to begin labor): 30% more babies are born during the day than at night. Induction: 220% higher chance of giving birth between 1-6:00pm on weekdays. C-Section: With a huge spike of births occurring at the beginning of the day and another spike just before noon, the surgeries plateau throughout the afternoon and drop significantly at night.

A few things to consider: Difference between Natural Birth, Interventions, and Surgery: An induced labor has a delayed labor progression between the start of induction and the birth, but it is pretty controlled. A c-section can be planned down to the minute if desired. A Doctor’s Schedule: Doctors have lives too, and if they have the ability to create a more predictable work schedule, they will. Of course, there are always births that arise around the clock, but most OB’s will schedule inductions and c-sections within a specific timeframe. Popular Hospital Staffing Hours: This follows the above consideration. A hospital has more staff on the floor during certain hours, and it is easier to accommodate mothers when there are more nurses available.

Our Society’s Need to be on a Clock: As much as we can blame the statistics on the medical professionals, we like to have control too. Many women electively ask for an induction or c-section for personal reasons. With all of this taken into account, here at My Baby’s Heartbeat Bear, we would love to know what time your baby entered the world! Were you induced? Did labor occur spontaneously? Was your labor scheduled? It doesn’t matter how your baby arrived, just as long as everyone is happy and healthy! I’ve had 4 natural births: Baby #1: 3:30pm Wednesday Baby #2: 8:00am Friday Baby #3: 5:00pm Friday Baby #4: 12:30am Saturday Yep, I’ve had a baby born in the morning, afternoon, evening, and the middle of the night! I’m pretty sure that spontaneous labors occur whenever the baby and mother’s body are ready, but I am not the data analyst here. Ha!

So what say you, fellow mamas? What time (and day of the week) was your baby born?