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Researchers have discovered that mums-to-be can stop themselves from going into labour on October 31st to avoid having a Halloween baby!
Rebecca Levy from Yale School of Public Health looked at 1.8 million US birth records from 1996 to 2006, and discovered a 11.3 per cent drop in birth rates on 31 October compared with the two-week period around it.
The decline in fright night deliveries was true for both natural, scheduled c-sections and induced births, leading Rebecca and the Yale research team to conclude that a "psychological influence over hormonal activity" could be at work!
"The study raises the possibility that the assumption underlying the term 'spontaneous birth', namely, that births are outside the control of pregnant women, is erroneous," said Rebecca Levy.
"We know that hormones control birth timing, and mothers do often express a desire to give birth on a certain day but the process that allows those thoughts to potentially impact the timing, we don't know."
She concluded that more research needs to be carried out to find out how thoughts and desires may affect birthing hormones and the birth process!
Fascinating stuff, but what's so wrong with having a Halloween baby anyway?
Were you due on October 31st?