Midwife urges people to 'stop having sex at Christmas' after surge in September births

'My god, September is terrible!' one midwife told The Independent

If you’ve noticed a lot of pregnant women around of late or seem to have a lot of birthday parties in your diary over the next few weeks, you’re probably not alone.

September 26 is the day most babies are born, because what happened nine months earlier? Christmas.

And now a midwife is speaking out to ask people to stop having sex over Christmas.

33-year-old midwife Mhairi Maharry from London jokingly tweeted:

“How is it only the 5th of September. I can’t take 25 more days of this. If you know or love a midwife, PLEASE STOP SHAGGING AT CHRISTMAS.”

She’s not alone either - one trainee midwife told The Independent that September is notorious for being manic.

And midwife Bethan Jones added: “My god, September is terrible! I’m in the midst of the busiest row of shifts I’ve had in a long time.

“Everyone decides this is the year they’ll have a baby, so they start trying right away and end up having a baby nine months later,” she explained to The Independent.

You might think mid November - nine months after Valentine’s Day - would be a busy time in labour wards, but it’s nothing on September.

Thanks to the whole of December being a time for parties, drinking and general frivolity, September is the busiest month of the year for midwives.

And after Maharry’s Twitter appeal, both expectant mothers and mothers of September babies apologised for any extra work they’d given midwives.

The chart below demonstrates clearly how the end of September is the time of year when most babies are born. And you can work out how common your birthday is by going to the interactive chart here.

How popular is your birthday?

Interestingly, December 25 and 26 are actually the days when the fewest babies are born.

There's a clear spike in September

However, the surge in September births may not be solely a result of couples getting frisky over the festive period - some parents plan to have September babies to coincide with the start of the school year, thus giving their child a head-start over their peers who are younger in the year.

According to Jones, you get “super organised pushy parents who want their kids to be the oldest in the year.”

The UK isn’t alone in this trend though - data from the US and New Zealand shows a rise in births in September too.

If you’re a September baby, take heart. At least you know your parents were having, ahem, fun over the festive period.