“Monday's Child Is Fair of Face”. an Analysis of the Day of Birth as an Indirect Way to Assess the Abuse of Elective Delivery in Italy.

Marco Breschi, Università degli Studi di Sassari
Gabriele Ruiu, Università degli Studi di Sassari
Giovanna Gonano, Università degli Studi di Sassari

The concentration of births on working days compared to a relative lack of events at weekends or during public holidays have been interpreted in literature as evidence of an excessive appeal to elective delivery. The World Health Organization has repeatedly expressed concerns about the abuse of this practice. We investigate the daily distribution of births in Italy in the period 1999-2016 to answer the following question: In addition to the weekend effects found in other countries, do popular beliefs about “unlucky” days also influence the calendar of births?

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 Presented in Session 194. Gendered Health and Reproductive Issues