Human Births and the Phase of the Moon

To the Editor: It is widely believed that human births occur most frequently at the time of the full moon; the belief is prevalent even among nurses at maternity wards. Of published studies of the frequency of births as a function of period in the lunar cycle, however, some¹ show negative results, and others^{2 3 4} show weak positive correlations that are inconsistent with each other. We have analyzed the distribution of all births at the University of California, Los Angeles, Hospital during 51 lunar cycles from March 17, 1974, through April 30, 1978. During this period, there were 11,691 live births,. No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.