Risks of night births

STARTING out life as a night owl could have serious consequences. New research shows that babies born at night are more likely to die during their first month than babies born during the day.

Researchers are unsure why night births carry a greater risk, but they say that differences in hospital staffing could play a role.

“The healthcare system needs to take a careful look at this,” says William Benitz, a neonatologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, who was not involved in the research. “We’ve got to ... find something we can do to change it, whether it’s better training or changing staffing patterns or something else.”

Lead researcher Jeffrey B. Gould, a neonatologist at Stanford, and colleagues analyzed medical records of more than 3.3 million babies born in California from 1992 to 1999. They found that babies born between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. had a 12% increase in neonatal mortality within the first 28 days of life, compared with babies born during daylight hours. Babies born late at night, from 1 a.m. to 6:59 a.m., had a 16% increase.

Researchers controlled for other factors that could affect infant mortality, such as prenatal care and complications during pregnancy or labor. The research was published in the August issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.