Christmas Babies
Dec 28, 2025It’s baby-making season. Go on...ask chat GPT if you don’t believe me. But you know it makes sense. It’s between Christmas and New Year so things don’t seem to matter as much. It goes beyond not even needing to know what day it is. If you already have kids of a certain age you are only half-heartedly looking at the time in the evenings to see if you should start the bedtime routine. Heck, maybe it’s enough that they just brush their teeth before bed, and the reading might not even happen at all tonight (yes, I actually admitted that). Whether or not you have kids, you might, during this time, more easily indulge in some of the sugar that has entered your house through various sources. And as you’re feeling way more relaxed, or a little intoxicated, or simply excited for the New Year – or a combination of all three – you get a bit cosier with another human and BANG, you two have contributed to the autumn baby boom that the UK will have roughly 9 months after the festive holiday period. We won’t ponder on the fact that I’m late September baby too.
On the flip side if you are reading this and have a baby that is only a few days old, firstly, huge congratulations on the birth of your little one. Secondly, you are technically in a minority group of parents, because according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), significantly fewer babies are born on Christmas day and Boxing Day. One reason for this is that there are less elective inductions and caesarean sections during holiday periods. It’s no secret that having a baby significantly changes your life, and it’s no secret that a lot of people look forward to the relaxation, reunions and refuelling that happens during Christmas and New Year. So I can only imagine that many pregnant people would choose the New Year as the best time to have their inductions or elective caesarean sections, rather than just before Christmas. Medical professionals have families to see and festive fun too so, in that case also, I can only imagine hospitals might simply not offer as many inductions and caesarean sections around this time.
If you are pregnant now did you choose to postpone your induction or caesarean section? If you are not far enough in your pregnancy to have to make that choice, is there a holiday period that might be more relevant to you in terms of how it might affect your intervention options? Maybe set your calendar alarm now, reminding you that things may slow down in your hospital and you can see that either as a blessing to take advantage of, or a possibility to plan for. But chances are your options shouldn’t change too much, compared to how much intervention statistics change in the Christmas to New Year period.
With love and birthday wishes for some,
Amifa
Rise & Glow Hypnobirthing teacher - Catford & Lewisham
