December babies enjoy all the benefits – except on birthdays

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

There’s a couple I know who have two adult children, one born on Christmas Day and the other on St Stephen’s Day – obviously not in the same year – a phenomenon which created much mirth among their friends right from the off.

One theory was that they were too mean to get caught for birthday and Christmas presents, so they doubled up into one; another was that the dad didn’t want to have to shell out for celebratory drinks so picked a time when, for one arrival, the pubs were closed and, for the other, we were all too busy to wet the little lady’s head.

Of course all of this was offered in jest because a more generous couple you couldn’t hope to find – although like a lot of us December babies, I’m not sure the kids’ birthday presents didn’t come with the rider that Santa was just around the corner.

The biologists and mathematicians in our ranks (and they were thin on the ground, it must be said) also tried to determine what made a particular day around the end of March so special for our friends in the first place, to result in two new Yuletide arrivals nine months later – but, apart from the long nights and the cold, there was no obvious explanation.

Until now – because all of this might have involved more forethought and planning than we ever gave our buddies credit for.

The British Medical Journal has just published a report which suggests that children born in December will ultimately face a significantly lower risk of dying from a heart attack.

A study of over 100,000 US nurses found that there was an 18 per cent lower chance of succumbing to cardiovascular disease among people who were born in December compared to those born in April.

And the reason for this may be equally obvious; a Christmas baby spends their first few months coping with the winter cold and the extended darkness – but that ultimately makes them less susceptible to disease for the rest of their lives.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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