When Are Babies Born: Morning, Noon, or Night? Birth Certificate Data for 2013

As the use of medical interventions for childbirth (i.e., induction of labor and cesarean delivery) has increased during the last few decades, an increasing proportion of deliveries occur during regular daytime hours.

Hospital personnel resources and maternal and newborn outcomes can be influenced by the time of day of delivery. Data on the time of day of the birth became available with the 2003 revision of the birth certificate.

A new NCHS report examines 2013 birth certificate data from the National Vital Statistics System to describe the time of day of birth by method of delivery and place of birth for a 41-state and District of Columbia (DC) reporting area that had adopted the 2003 revised birth certificate by January 2013. This reporting area represents 90% of U.S. births.

Key Findings from the Report:

• The highest percentages of births occurred during the morning and midday hours.
• Births on Saturday and Sunday were more likely to occur in the late evening and early morning hours than births Monday through Friday.
• Compared with induced vaginal deliveries and noninduced vaginal deliveries, cesarean deliveries were the least likely to occur during the evening and early morning.
• Noninduced vaginal births were more likely than cesarean and induced vaginal births to occur in the early morning.
• Cesarean deliveries with no trial of labor were much more concentrated during the day than were cesarean deliveries with a trial of labor.