Time Variations, Births, and Lunar Association

: Often maternity nurses are heard to remark that the full moon influences the onset of labor and subsequently the birth of babies. The senior author decided to do a statistical analysis of data pertaining to births in a community hospital during a 3-year period from January 1977 through December 1979 to help determine the validity of this belief. While there were many statistically significant built-in rhythms regarding births, i.e., time of year for births to occur, day of week for births to occur, and time of day for births to occur, influence by the full or new moon on the incidence of birth was not supported by the data. Chances are, however, that a number of maternity nurses will continue to believe that the association exists.