Summer Births
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:47 pm
I came across this article today:
Stork works overtime in summer
July 30, 2007
BY ANDREW HERRMANN Staff Reporter aherrmann@suntimes.com
Happy birthday -- to you and you and you over there, too.
According to experts, this is what might be considered the bubble of the birthday season. In the most current calculation available -- 2004 -- July was the month with the most births in the United States with 359,426, or about 8.7 percent of the annual total. Over a 10-year average, August comes in No. 1.
It helps that both months have 31 days. But so does January, and that month, in the baby birthing department, ranks a feeble 11th.
July and August can be explained, researchers say, by counting back nine months -- to November and December.
Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas, indeed!
The mistletoe effect
Some experts who study what they call "seasonal variation in births" have theories based on biology and climate. Scientists using historical data have detected rhythms correlated to the amount of sunlight and temperatures but, as German researcher Jürgen Aschoff wrote, "With industrialization, people are increasingly shielded from both photoperiod [sunlight variations] by indoor work and temperature by heating and air conditioning."
Others point to the holidays -- call it the mistletoe effect -- as sparking increased sexual activity.
Writing in The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, University of London sexual health professor Kaye Wellings and her colleagues noted the year end's "merry-making ... [is] associated with increased opportunities for socializing and a generally more hedonistic approach to life."
People tend to drink more during this time and "the link between drinking and unsafe sex . . . is well documented," Wellings said.
'Suspend hostilities'
Another British researcher, William H. James, added that married couples are likely to spend more time together during the holidays and estranged pairs may "suspend hostilities over the festive season 'for the sake of the children.'"
Dr. Jacqueline Bardwell of Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn confirms this can be a harried time for obstetricians.
"We are a lot busier in the summer," said Bardwell, who has been practicing obstetrics for 15 years.
"This time of year we are often full," she said of the center's 17 birthing rooms.
CAKES, GIFTS AND A BILLION CARDS
• An average of 700,000 birthdays occur each day.
• The most popular day of the week for births is Tuesday. The fewest occur on Sunday. The days may be influenced by doctors' scheduling Caesarean deliveries and inducements, according to federal health statisticians.
• Putting candles on birthday cakes may date back to the early Greeks, who, praying over the flames, believed that the smoke carried their thoughts up to the gods. Others think the custom originated in Germany, where celebrants put a large candle in the center of a cake to symbolize 'the light of life.'
• About 1.1 billion birthday cards are given each year, about 60 percent of the card industry. About 70 percent of the cards carry a personally inscribed message. Two-thirds of birthday cards are mailed.
• The average American gets four birthday gifts a year.
• Golden birthdays are when a person's age and birth date are the same: turning 31 on the 31st, for example.
• Some children, whose birthdays are diluted because they fall on major holidays, such as Dec. 25 or Jan. 1, celebrate half birthdays -- the halfway mark until their next birthday.
• Hallmark says it sells about 85,000 of its 100th-birthday cards a year and estimates there are 70,000 centenarians in the United States.
