There are those who say that just as the moon has an effect on the tides, it also has an effect on people, who are mostly composed of water, and also on the births of babies, since they live in an aqueous environment, the amniotic fluid.
Under that premise, there are those who are guided by the lunar calendar to predict the date of birth. It is believed that in full moon there are more births, or that the days of change of cycle predispose to more births, but in reality, they are nothing more than beliefs. Diverse studies have ruined the theory of the influence of the lunar phases in childbirths and a recent one from the Hospital de Manises (Valencia, Spain) confirms it again. There is no scientific foundation. It is a myth.
Beliefs versus science
One of the beliefs on which this myth is based is that, formerly, the menstrual periods went hand in hand with the lunar cycle (both 28 days), ovulating the full moon day and menstruating the new moon day. This way the births were in full moon, nine moons later.
It may have made some sense in the past, but apparently today we have moved away from that connection with nature and the stars.
Popular wisdom also says that to conceive a girl you have to have relationships during the full moon phase, but of course this also has no scientific rigor.
The studies carried out
Although almost a third of Spaniards still believe that there are more full moon births, there are several scientific works that show that this is not the case.
Back in 2011, two Galician students analyzed 1,392 births in Spain by natural births, those that occur spontaneously, without any medical induction. Among them, 150 births of a town in Bolivia were included, to have a control sample of the southern hemisphere. Each day of birth was assigned a day of the 29 of the lunar cycle, without being able to verify that there were peaks according to certain phases of the moon.
Another 2015 study, conducted by a professor of planetary astronomy at the University of California (UCLA), has reached the same conclusion. It has shown that the moon has nothing to do with the amount of car accidents, hospital admissions, surgery results, cancer survival rates, menstruation, births, complications in childbirth, depression, violent behaviors and even criminal activity.
Now, the Hospital de Manises de Valencia has analyzed the 4,700 deliveries which has attended in the last three years, from 2013 to 2015, comparing them with the lunar phases.
As explained by the midwifery supervisor at the Hospital de Manises, Esther García
“The analysis comes to corroborate what is pointed out in a large number of studies carried out in which no really significant relationship between moon phases and the number of births are shown or the complications that may occur throughout it ”
A cystic myth
Despite the scientific evidence, it is a myth that will not cease to exist. Given the power that is believed to have the moon over women and female sexuality, you will not stop looking at the sky when a family birth approaches.
When a pregnant woman leaves accounts, it is common to try to predict the date of birth according to the phases of the moon, and if the baby is born just on a full moon, which of course there are also, it is often attributed to the power of our natural satellite. With that criterion, we would all have been born in a moon change.
In your case, Do you think the moon could have had any influence on your pregnancy or childbirth?
