Where are the Sunday babies? II. Declining weekend birth rates in Switzerland

Abstract

Birth dates from almost 3 million babies born between 1969 and 2005 in Switzerland were analyzed for the weekday of birth. As in other countries but with unprecedented amplitude, a very marked non-random distribution was discovered with decreasing numbers of births on weekends, reaching -17.9% in 2005. While most of this weekend births avoidance rate is due to fewer births on Sundays (up to -21.7%), the downward trend is primarily a consequence of decreasing births on Saturdays (up to -14.5%). For 2005, these percentages mean that 3,728 fewer babies are born during weekends than could be expected from equal distribution. Most interestingly and surprisingly, weekend birth-avoiding rates are significantly correlated with birth numbers (r = 0.86), i.e. the lower the birth number per year, the lower the number of weekend births. The increasing avoidance of births during weekends is discussed as being a consequence of increasing numbers of caesarean sections and elective labor induction, which in Switzerland reach 29.2 and 20.5%, respectively, in 2004. This hypothesis is supported by the observation that both primary and secondary caesarean sections are significantly correlated with weekend birth avoidance rates. It is therefore likely that financial aspects of hospitals are a factor determining the avoidance of weekend births by increasing the numbers of caesarean sections.

Where are the Sunday babies? III. Caesarean sections, decreased weekend births, and midwife involvement in Germany

“…The correlation between CS and weekend births avoidance rates for Germany's 16 states further strengthens this result: the higher the CS ratio, the lower the number of weekend births. These data are in good agreement with the observations of parallel increases of CS and weekend births avoidance rates which were shown in other countries as well (Gould et al 2003;Lerchl and Reinhard 2007;Martin et al 2005;Mossialos et al 2005;Signorelli et al 1991). Why should planned births by caesarean sections be scheduled on weekdays?…”

“…In fact, some studies provide support for this hypothesis: in California, USA, weekend births avoidance rates paralleled the lower CS ratios during weekends (Gould et al 2003), while at certain hospitals in Italy and Greece the likelihood for CS was higher on weekdays than during the weekend (Mossialos et al 2005;Signorelli et al 1991). For Switzerland, it was also shown that CS ratios and weekend births avoidance rates are significantly correlated (Lerchl and Reinhard 2007). The present study was performed to get additional data for Germany where the 16 German states' data offer the possibility to comparatively analyze the possible associations.…”

“…This was shown for Australia, Germany, the UK, Switzerland, and the USA (Goodman et al 2005;Gould et al 2003;Hendry 1981;Lerchl 2005;Lerchl and Reinhard 2007;MacFarlane 1978;Mathers 1983). Especially, Sunday births are less frequent than births on weekdays.…”

“…This trend is progressive with no signs of abating (Black et al 2005;Lerchl and Reinhard 2007;Liu et al 2004;Martin et al 2005;Oladapo et al 2004;Simpson and Thorman 2005;ZQG 2004). Extreme cases were reported for Greece (Mossialos et al 2005) and Brazil (Diniz and Chacham 2004) where approximately two thirds of pregnancies are terminated by CS in privately insured mothers, supporting the view that financial and convenience motivations play a crucial role at least in these countries.…”

Chronological objects in demographic research

“…Births are less likely on weekends (e.g. Goodman et al 2005;Lerchl and Reinhard 2008). Delivering a child outside the normal working week is associated with increased risk of perinatal and neonatal death (e.g.…”