Full moon: uh-oh?

In labor wards and delivery rooms, where personnel typically are guided by evidence-based approaches to their work, a superstitious belief that a full moon brings a spike in the number of deliveries or delivery complications causes some staff a certain amount of monthly distress. If this belief were grounded in fact, it could have implications for staffing patterns. However, a study of more than 500,000 North Carolina births spanning 62 lunar cycles should bring comfort to health care personnel who approach their work with bated breath every 28 days. (1) Using analysis of variance and t tests to compare outcomes across the eight phases of the moon, the researchers found no statistically significant differences in the number of births overall or of births to women who had had more than one pregnancy, in types of delivery or in complications. Nevertheless, with a nod to human nature, they expect that the superstition will endure and that some labor and delivery personnel "will continue to look up and sigh in dread when [they] see the full moon looking back." Maybe not. Keep your fingers crossed.

(1.) Arliss JM, Kaplan EN and Galvin SL, The effect of the lunar cycle on frequency of births and birth complications, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2005, 192(2):1462-1464.

FYI is compiled and written by Dore Hollander, executive editor of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.