12

I've heard from multiple sources -- a simple google search will confirm -- that significantly more babies are born during full moon periods.

Are there any studies supporting or disputing the purported relationship between births and lunar cycles?

0

2 Answers 2

12

A skepdic article references meta-research after 100 studies, finding no evidence of any correlation between lunar-cycle and a lot of things, amongst them birth-rate.

(It goes on to explain why the myth might be still around, if you are interested in that sort of thing ;) )

There is other research also: for instance this study1 that is quite clear in its results and conclusion:

Results
The analyses revealed no significant correlates of birth rate.

Conclusion
Although there exists a popular belief that the phase of the lunar cycle and weather conditions affect birth rate, no such evidence was found in this study.

I believe more studies can be found, but this is convincing enough for me.

1: Susan Morton-Pradhan, MD, R. Curtis Bay, PhD, Dean V. Coonrod, MD, MPH, American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology Volume 192, Issue 6 , Pages 1970-1973, June 2005

1
  • What effect is exactly debunked, since Mr. Sklivvz refuses to tell us, whether he believes in moonlight or just in the presence of the moon. My opinion is, that you have to know what the claim actually is to debunk it. If the claim is about moonlight, but your studies concentrate just on the mooncycle, and measure cloudy nights as well as daytime, the study doesn't really disprove the claim and vice versa. Aug 9, 2011 at 20:29
7

Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about this at TAM6. Basically, in a few areas there is a slight rise in birthrate during full moons, but, since the human gestation period is precisely 10 times the time between full Moons, that just means that conception happened on a full Moon, and there are certain, romantic, effects of a full Moon…

2
  • Are births only counted when happening at night, where the fullmoon is visible? And how many days (nights) count as fullmoon? Nov 8, 2011 at 5:44
  • 1
    Keep in mind that human females are only fertile for a certain time window within their menstrual cycle. I think the more interesting hypothesis is whether the full moon affects ovulation.
    – mskfisher
    Jun 12, 2014 at 1:23

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .