Can You Decide When to Go Into Labor? A New Study Says It’s Possible!

If you’re superstitious and don’t want to give birth on Halloween or Friday the 13th, you do have the power to stop yourself from going into labor. A new research study at Yale School of Public Health found that fewer women go into labor on Halloween, while more women give birth on Valentine’s Day. Looking at an 11-year period, researchers reported a 5.3 percent decrease in spontaneous births and a 16.9 percent decrease in c-sections on Halloween (compared with births a week before and a week after), and on Valentine’s Day, there was a 3.6 percent increase in spontaneous births and a 12.1 percent increase in c-sections.

By analyzing the data, experts suggest that superstition and certain beliefs can affect birth timing. Yup, that means that your psyche could play a part in deciding when it’s time to go into labor. This opens up a whole new possibility that, by simply using their own minds, women can somewhat control when they go into labor -- which, up until now, was seen as something completely spontaneous.

What an interesting discovery! Would you try to time your labor if you were due on a less desirable day?

Plus, more from The Bump:

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-- Sarah Yang

See More: Labor and Delivery , 3rd Trimester