Hurricanes in Relation to Labor: Does Barometric Pressure Induce Labor?
You may have noticed before that birds roost before bad weather. If you have pets you may have noticed them acting strangely and then it thunderstorms. Animals have this sort of sixth sense about things like that. Believe it or not, you could too. After all, the human animal is still an animal.
Stress and biology
Stressful situations cause our bodies to react biologically. If something startles you and you jump, this is your fight or flight mechanism kicking in. Your instincts in dangerous situations are either to fight, or to run. Fight or flight. These biological changes occur without your help, often without your awareness that they are even occurring.
The weather and stress
The recent hurricane in Texas showed an increase of nearly double the births in hospitals throughout the Houston, Texas area this past week. The days leading up to the hurricane and the weekend of the storm showed a deluge of not only water, but of pregnant women making their way to the delivery rooms.
Backed by science
It is believed that the barometric pressure has something to do with this increase in births during storms. Barometric pressure drops during storms and the body can often feel that. You may have had a grandparent that would forecast the rain because their knee or back was acting up. That was the barometric pressure change being felt by their bodies that over time they realized the connection to bad weather. There have been studies that correlate the drop in barometric pressure with pregnant women’s water breaking.
Not just a coincidence
During hurricane Sandy on the east coast in 2012, an obstetrician in New Jersey reported a marked increase in the number of births as well. She was quoted as saying that inclement weather and full moons almost always brought more business into the hospital delivery rooms.