A consultant gynaecologist and reproductive medicine expert, Dr Benedict Ekaidem, has debunked the belief that more babies are born at night.

The consultant said that contrary to that belief, babies could come at any time of the day, adding that there was no medical reason indicating that deliveries were more at night.

He said that labour and delivery could happen anytime “but because the night is usually quiet, deliveries often draw more attention from the public.”

“I can say that deliveries happen round the clock. The event that actually leads to the labour or delivery of a pregnant woman does not have any relation to whether it is bright or dark.

“As health workers, we work round the clock and that is why we know that deliveries happen all the time and that is why doctors and health workers in the maternity unit will have to work all the time.

“Labours or delivery does not announce itself. When a woman is in labour, she cannot control it, it is an involuntary action and not something that is within her control,” the consultant said.

He noted that the reason why people had the misconception that more babies were born at night was that the night was meant for humans to rest, “so, if anything happens around that time, people tend to misinterpret that it is more at night than during the day.”

(NAN)