Pregnant women and werewolves
14May. 09
Pregnant women and werewolves. What do they have in common? Thick, all-over body hair, an aversion to silver and a tendency to rip the heads off strangers? Well, the last one may have something going for it…
My wife and I are expecting our first child, and we’ve done the usual round of birthing classes and education for new parents-to-be. Generally these were very informative and well worthwhile — scary things are much less scary if you know something about them. The class we attended was given by one of those highly experienced nurses you always hope you get looking after you — the “seen everything and cleaned up afterwards” type. All was going well (albeit graphically) when she mentioned something strange — that all the girls in the room should look ahead to when the next full moon was due, because they were more likely to go into labour around that time. The moon affects liquid and your baby is surrounded by liquid therefore a full moon will get things moving.
Hmm. Well my wife, being the good skeptic that she is, didn’t like that as a piece of logical reasoning and jumped online to do some research. And as you’d expect, there’s PLENTY out there on this particular topic. Let’s bust some moon myths.
The moon has a direct affect on water
No, it doesn’t. The moon does have a part to play in oceanic tidal activity, because the moon has a greater gravitational effect on the side of the Earth which is closest (give a paddling pool a yank and watch the water slosh around). But it’s not the only factor — the relative position of the Sun also has an effect on tides as does the Earth’s own rotation. But these are effects on a planetary scale — when you drill down to the small scale (and humans are very small scale) the gravitational impact of celestial bodies is so small as to be non-existent in every practical sense. To quickly debunk astrology for a moment — the gravitational effect of the obstetrician at your birth is far greater than that of Jupiter.
If this doesn’t convince you, ask yourself why your glass of water doesn’t slope at the full moon, or why the shower spray doesn’t veer off to one side. To quote Stephen Fry: “If the moon had such a strong impact on us each month, we would have noticed”. Think about what your life would be like each month if it did.…ew, we males are moody enough without being convinced that we have cosmic periods too.
The female menstrual cycle is synced to the lunar cycle, so there must be a connection
No — it isn’t, and no — there doesn’t. The female menstrual cycle (for human females) is 28 days on average — some women have longer cycles, some shorter, and most women experience variation from one cycle to the next. In fact, variation of less than 8 days between the longest and shortest cycle is considered “regular”.
The lunar cycle on the other hand, is a lot more regular than that — 29.53 days. If you tried to keep your menstrual cycle in sync with the moon, you’d get out of sync pretty quickly.
This is really just one of those stories which crops up and sticks around because it loosely fits the observed facts, but it doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny. It’s also a very anthropocentric tale — we’re the ones telling the story about ourselves and we like stories that fit the bias that we’re the most important species on the planet (bacteria might contest that viewpoint, if they weren’t so busy eating us). But other species have completely different menstrual cycles — in sheep it’s 16 days, in chimps (our closest cousins) it’s 37 and in mice it’s 5. Are they simply bereft of blessings from the moon goddess?
But hospitals always notice more women going into labour around the full moon
Correct — they “notice” it. At all the times when things are just plain “busy” they don’t notice it.
Again, this comes back to the issue of making observed facts fit a model of the world which you’re comfortable with. Everyone “knows” that the full moon and storms (with the attendant fluctuations in air pressure) are more likely to make women go into labour, so you end up paying attention to data which reinforces the story and discount data which doesn’t - good ol’ “confirmation bias”.
In Summary
The only thing which “makes” women go into labour is their own bodies — chemicals and hormones kick in and the body says “Right, this baby’s free ride comes to an end NOW.” Having been a spectator in the process of pregnancy (and the Fetcher of Pillows and Cushions), I’ve gained a deep appreciation and wonder at just how amazing the physical body is, how we and so many other species on this planet have evolved complex and intricate internal support systems to bring new taxpayers, sorry, beings, into the world.
Like all amazing things, pregnancy and childbirth are riddled with fairy-dust stories, metaphysics and woo. And again like all amazing things, the truth is vastly superior and infinitely more wonderful.
May 14th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Hi James, congratulations. I have a 16 month old myself. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, suggestions or experiences which might help you. Its all very fresh in my mind and i have been keeping a diary. Email: subjectsofinterest@gmail.com
Nurses are wonderful but that doesnt mean they are not woo-less. I think as far as direct questions relating to their work its unlikely to be prey to personal bias. For example i dont recall my wife being offered homeopathic pain killers or a psychic instead of a doctor to determine when she was ready to pop out ;)
I hope you are going to be there to grab hold of bubs once he/she arrives. I got to be the first person to hold my girl, it was wonderful.
May 14th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Thanks Dan — I may certainly take you up on your kind offer :-)
Funnily enough, pain remedies like hypnosis, acupuncture and aromatherapy are put forward as potential methods of pain relief. Not with much enthusiasm by the nursing staff, it has to be said.
Kaz Cook has a wonderful line about it in her book “Up The Duff” — “aromatherapy is not pain reflief…it’s just dicking with the atmosphere”.
Love it :-)
I’m definitely looking forward to being a dad.
May 16th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Hey, good work debunking those moon myths. I think I always assumed that the moon had something to do with the woman’s 28 day menstrual cycle (at least used to, when we lived in caves). But what was particularly interesting was reading the lengths of the cycles for other animals.
Another menstrual cycle myth that may or may not be a myth but sounds like one, is that womens cycles sync up with each other when they live together. I remember researching this a while ago and not finding a definitive answer. The first research papers on it were positive, and then there started to be some doubts..
A summary of it can be found here:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2429/does-menstrual-synchrony-really-exist
Anyway. Thanks for the interesting article. Good luck with your bubs.
d
May 18th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Here’s some more pregnancy myths busted by Kari Byron…if ANYONE is qualified to bust myths it’s a pregnant Mythbuster!
http://bit.ly/KariPregnant
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:13 am
I enjoyed your article – it was funny and informative. But there are a few studies that show weather to have an effect on delivery.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/a515l113m5h52542/
There are some studies that show no link, though, so it’s not entirely proven, but it’s more likely than the moon.
May 24th, 2009 at 9:36 am
What kind of a blog is this?! Where’s the baby update and live video stream to the hospital???
Big eCongrats to the whole family!
December 12th, 2009 at 9:22 am
The 28-day cycle is a myth too. Every textbooks says the AVERAGE cycle is 28 days and they cite each other, who started this? According to some studies only about 30% fit in that STATISTIC. If we’re talking statistics I’d be much more interested in the median or mode cycle length, what is the most frequently occurring length?