--- title: What Time of Day Are Babies Born? description: A new report shows the highest percentage of U.S. births in 2013 (the most recent data available) happened during morning and midday hours. canonical: https://time.com/3850864/heres-what-time-of-day-babies-are-born/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-08T04:01:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:02:04.030Z article:section: Health og:title: What Time of Day Are Babies Born? og:description: A new report shows the highest percentage of U.S. births in 2013 (the most recent data available) happened during morning and midday hours. og:url: https://time.com/3850864/heres-what-time-of-day-babies-are-born/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf09ae515a12bc473/6987eed52dce01856b9e1b98/540730969-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5632 og:image:height: 3168 og:image:alt: 540730969 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Time of Day Are Babies Born? twitter:description: A new report shows the highest percentage of U.S. births in 2013 (the most recent data available) happened during morning and midday hours. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf09ae515a12bc473/6987eed52dce01856b9e1b98/540730969-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What Time of Day Babies Are Born > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=1c6320b8-1497-403a-b243-584398804b69&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 8, 2015 4:01 AM UTC  Baby boy Baby boy Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 8, 2015 4:01 AM UTC According to new data, American mothers-to-be aren’t having too many late night surprises. A new report shows the highest percentage of U.S. births in 2013 (the most recent data available) happened during morning and midday hours. The new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s National Center for Health Statistics looked at 2013 birth certificate data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), and found that the highest percentage of births took place occurred during the hours of 8:00 a.m. and noon. Less than 3% of babies were born during each hour from midnight to 6:59 a.m. Though most births happen during the day, the latest findings report that when babies are born on a Saturday or Sunday, they are more likely to happen in the late evening or overnight—11:00 p.m. through 5:59 a.m.—compared to births that happen between Monday to Friday. When it comes to how women gave birth, there were also some distinct patterns in timing. The researchers reported that compared to with induced and non-induced vaginal deliveries, cesarean deliveries were the least likely to occur during evening and early morning. Non-induced vaginal births were more likely to happen in the early morning compared to cesarean and induced vaginal births. Births in out-of-hospital settings were most likely to happen in the early morning hours starting at 1:00 a.m. “As the use of medical interventions for childbirth (i.e., induction of labor and cesarean delivery) has increased during the last few decades, an increasing proportion of deliveries occur during regular daytime hours,” the study authors write. Understanding when women are most likely giving birth and what types of births are occurring when, can help hospitals better prepare to ensure mother and child are healthy. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3850864/heres-what-time-of-day-babies-are-born/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3850864/heres-what-time-of-day-babies-are-born/"},"headline":"Here's What Time of Day Babies Are Born","datePublished":"2015-05-08T04:01:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:02:04.030Z","description":"Just in time for Mother's Day, a new report shows when babies are most likely to be born","url":"https://time.com/3850864/heres-what-time-of-day-babies-are-born/","keywords":["Research","Babies","CDC","birth"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf09ae515a12bc473/6987eed52dce01856b9e1b98/540730969-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf09ae515a12bc473/6987eed52dce01856b9e1b98/540730969-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"540730969","caption":"540730969","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3850864/heres-what-time-of-day-babies-are-born/","name":"Here's What Time of Day Babies Are Born"}}]}] ```