This Is the Most Popular Weekday to Give Birth, Study Says

Despite what the cute letterboards and Instagram-worthy announcements might lead you to believe, your predicted “due date” is more of a suggestion than a hard and fast deadline. In fact, only about five percent of women have their baby on their predicted due date. The reality is many women give birth a couple of days past or before their due date. While the date may be pretty difficult to nail down, a recent study suggests that you might have a good guess as to what weekday baby will arrive.

According to Smart Cells, a stem cell bank in the UK, the least amount of babies are born on the traditional “day of rest,” Sunday. Instead, most babies prefer to make their appearance on Thursdays.

For the study, researchers reviewed the birth information of nearly 18 million babies born in the UK. The popularity of births by weekday fell as such:

• Monday: 1815
• Tuesday: 1888
• Wednesday: 1900
• Thursday: 1923
• Friday: 1906
• Saturday: 1608
• Sunday: 1521

So why the big difference between Sunday and Thursday or Wednesday and Saturday? Researchers suggest that the differences are in part due to C-sections being scheduled on weekdays instead of weekends.

Outside of the weekday findings, Smart Cell previously discovered through similar statistics that September 26 is the most common birth date in the UK, with September being the most popular birthday month overall. And when it comes to time, research shows that most births occur between 9am and 5pm on weekdays. However, most spontaneous births happen between 1am and 7am, peaking at 4am.

So, if you are just around the bend when it comes to your due date keep your fingers crossed for a Thursday and remember no matter what day, every day is a good day to welcome a new life into the word!