Full Moon Leads To More Babies? Hospital's Possible Explanation For Weekend Baby Boom In Sacramento

Does A Full Moon Lead To More Births?

Strange things seem to happen when there's a full moon, especially in the hospital.

That's where an incredible 45 babies entered the world last weekend in Sacramento, Calif., according to FOX 40. But some say the mini "baby boom" was no accident.

Throughout a period of 48 hours, doctors at Sacramento's Sutter Memorial delivered 45 newborns-- a possible record for deliveries in a two-day period for the city, stated hospital spokesperson Gary Zavoral. While some doctors joke that the high number of births could be attributed to the full moon, hospital officials hint that the speculation might not be that far out. After all, menstruation and ovulation more or less follow a lunar cycle, so why can't childbirth be affected, too?

The theory of the lunar effect on births is based off the fact that the moon's gravitational pull causes high tides. Since the human body is made up of 80 percent water, the pull is believed to speed along the childbirth process, according to Discovery Health.

However, several studies suggest that the idea of the lunar effect influencing the number or frequency of deliveries is just, well, looney.

In 2005, researchers from Mountain Area Health Education Center in North Carolina analyzed almost 600,000 births across 62 lunar cycles. The data were retrieved from birth certificates from 1997 to 2001. The result? No significant differences in the frequency of births across the eight stages of the moon.

Scientific data doesn't put old myths to bed, though. The anecdote of the lunar effect is a longstanding one, and some medical professionals won't deny that things get pretty hectic when the full moon is out.

"I think if you talk to anybody on the front lines of the hospital, emergency room doctors, labor and delivery, etc. it’s always like that on the full moon, everyone for some reason is really busy," Matthew Guile, a doctor at Sutter Memorial, told Fox 40.

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