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Reassessments: Baby bonus, or not?
Australia's birthrate drops significantly whenever obstetricians gather for their annual conference, according to research done by economist Joshua Gans of the University of Melbourne. Gans and his colleagues are forced into the suspicion that specialists are timing their deliveries to suit their travel schedules.
"Since it is unlikely that parents take these conferences into account when conceiving their child, this suggests that medical professionals are timing births to suit their conference schedule," they wrote in the journal Social Science and Medicine. "Although little is known about the effects on infant health of moving the timing of a birth for non-medical reasons, it is plausible that such changes may increase the chance of birth complications."
Gans says birthrates in Australia and the US fall by between 2 and 4 per cent in both countries during major obstetrics conference days. In Australia, specialists tend to hold their congress in September and October, which coincides with the peak birth period of spring.
US obstetricians, on the other hand, routinely gather during a birth lull in April and May. Gans suggests Australian obstetrics conference organisers should shift their congress dates to late November or early December "when the natural birthrate is at a minimum".
Dr Roy Watson, acting president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, has questioned the findings. He said the results showed no increase in birth numbers either side of the conference dates, as might be expected if specialists were inducing births.
And only about 200 of Australia's 1500 birth specialists attend the national conference each year, leaving the majority still at work. "So it doesn't quite ring true," Dr Watson said.
