Spooked To Have A Baby On Halloween?

Do you want your baby to share a birthday with the Great Pumpkin? Evidently many women in the U.S. do not.

Just in time for Halloween comes a study which finds birth rates drop like a mini-rock during the spookiest day of the year.

Researchers studied birth records of more than 2 million births over a 10 year period and find that giving birth on Halloween isn't a very popular way to celebrate the day. In fact, rates drop in the 5 days before, and the 5 days after -- with the biggest drop being on actual Halloween.

How much of a drop? How about 11.3 percent compared to the average daily birth rate the rest of the year.

So what's the trick? Is it women just saying "no" to an elective C-section to avoid a creepy birthday? Not really. Vaginal births dropped as well, leading researchers to ask what in the name of Jack O'Lantern is going on?

The theory: women psychologically controlling the hormones that trigger labor. Sounds like a ghost theory, but women surveyed said giving birth on Halloween is spooky -- too much association with scary, bad things.

Maybe that's true, or maybe it's a tall tale. But consider this: many women think Valentine's Day is a good day to deliver ... and the figures back that thinking up. Birth rates go up 5 percent on Valentines Day, compared to the rest of the days in February.

An eerie but romantic phenomenon!