A midwife has made an early Christmas appeal, begging people to stop having sex at Christmas because it leads to a spike in babies born in September. Mhairi Maharry, 33, who is based in London, made the light-hearted plea on her Twitter account, which has since been made private. The tweet has been liked more than 16,000 times and garnered hundreds of comments since she posted it, MailOnline reported.
"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 wrote after a busy first week of the month, adding that the peak date for births is 26th September.
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Figures from the Office for National Statistics back this up, showing between 1995 and 2014 there was an average of 2,000 deliveries on 26th September, compared with the average for the whole year of 1,800 births.
Christmas time is the most popular time of the year for babies to be conceived https://t.co/yQjkQDI1PT pic.twitter.com/2VTo1N3eXy
— ONS (@ONS) December 24, 2015
Fewer babies are born during the Christmas holidays, however, with with six of the 10 least popular birth dates falling between Christmas and New Year. There is also a lull in early April – possibly because parents want to avoid having an April fool baby.
Some apologised to Maharry for having September babies themselves.
I'm so sorry, my first child was a September baby. The midwife on the ward was nearing a breakdown. I can't apologise enough xx
— Eliza Doodle ? (@IwasGobby) September 7, 2017
Fair enough. As someone due in 3 weeks, I apologise for adding to your distress ?
— Kimberley (@manderpantz) September 6, 2017
Others recommended Maharry start being strategic when booking time off.
I had noticed this a long time ago,now you know when to book your holiday time off
— Lizzy Crone (@LizzyCrone) September 7, 2017
This story was originally published in September 2017.