Babies born at night have an increased risk of death, by about 12 to 16% than their counterparts born at other times of the day said a new research published in the latest issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Researchers for Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Stanford University, who had done the research, said that this risk is more for babies in their first month of life than later. Researchers have done a research and review of medical publications regarding the association between time of birth and neonatal death risks. Researchers claim that more research needs to be done to pinpoint the exact causes that increase the risk of dying for the neonates born after dark. Identification of even a couple of reasons can go a long way in preventing such deaths.Researchers had looked into the records of 3.3 million babies born in the state of California, US, from the period of 1992 to 1999. Their results show that ten percent of the neonatal deaths happen for babies born in the night than babies born at other times of the day. In US in the year 2002, 27,970 babies died before reaching their first birthday, of which 67.2% of the deaths occurred within the neonatal period of 28 days from birth.
Source: EurekAlert
