After the recent discussions about time of birth though some might be interested in this. Karleen Gribble Night-born babies 'have higher death risk' Source: AP|Published: Friday July 28, 1:41 PM Babies born at night are almost twice as likely to die as those delivered in the daytime, a new study showed today. Researchers assessed the effect of night and day on infant death rates following more than 380,000 births in Hesse, Germany, between 1990 and 1998. They identified a total of 57 deaths occurring during labour or within the first seven days of life, reflecting a low overall risk. But babies born between 9pm and 6.59am - defined as 'night-time births' - had double the risk of early death as babies born at other times. A clear link between time of birth and death related to asphyxia was also seen, the team reported in the British Medical Journal. The researchers, led by Professor Gunther Heller, from Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany, suggested several explanations for the results. They included staff's increased physical and mental fatigue during the night, or over-reliance on less experienced staff during night shifts. Such situations were not specific to the NHS or the British population, said the authors. They added: 'Better-designed shifts, resulting in shorter working hours, or decreased workload with greater supervision byexperienced staff at night, should be considered to reduce early neonatal mortality during the night.' *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html