Most Maltese babies are born in September, new data reveals, and a quick count on one’s fingers suggests couples must be at their most amorous in the month of December.
Figures show that, between 2010 and last year, September was the baby boom month, closely followed by October, confirming that Maltese babies are often conceived during the winter months, particularly December and January.
There could be various factors to explain this: the cold spells may encourage couples to stay indoors and have cosy nights in.
The Christmas spirit and family reunions with little children happily opening their presents could set biological clocks ticking. It could reflect new year’s resolutions to start a family or else there could merely be contraceptive slip-ups during the festive party season.
What is certain is that the Christmas mistletoe puts people in a romantic mood.
In July, the Maltese are least likely to head to bed
Partying and socialising in the hot summer month of July is not as fruitful, for example.
In fact, judging by the statistics released by the Health Parliamentary Secretariat, July is the month in which Maltese are least likely to head to bed, making April the least busy month in the maternity ward.
The slowest season for births in Malta in the last five years was spring, while autumn was the most hectic for midwives.
The data also shows that 2014 was an overall baby boom year – it had the highest rate of infants in 13 years with a total of 4,335 newborns. Once again, the ninth month of the year was the most popular: 405 babies were born last September, a record compared to an average of 388.
Times of Malta delved into the archives to check the economic and climatic scenario for the reason that could have lured many under the sheets in December 2013. At the time, media headlines announced that the hapless Arriva buses would be leaving in January. Did that make commuter couples pop the champagne?
Also in the news were the regular Baby Jesus road cribs snatchers, health experts clamouring for the legalisation of prostitution and, of course, there was the whole saga of the controversial passport-citizenship scheme, which may have put couples in a patriotic, offspring-producing mode.
It was also a month after free childcare was announced in the Budget, which might have nudged couples into a ‘Go on then, let’s have a go’ mood.
Weatherwise, it was not exceptionally cold or wet but an unusually lengthy bout of thunderstorms in December and January may have encouraged couples to tuck in under their quilts.
The figures reveal that before 2014, the last baby boom in Malta was in 2000, which saw the birth of 4,377 millennium babies. The year with the lowest births in the last two decades was 2005: only 3,865 babies were born.