Beech Tree News Network

On what day of the week were you born? Recently, I found a decorative plate that I used in my baby daughters’ bedrooms (decades ago). It is decorated with Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls and has the “Monday’s Child” poem on it:

“Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child must work for a living,
But the child that's born on the Sabbath day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay.” – Author Unknown

The most popular day for U.S. babies to arrive is Tuesday, followed by Monday. Sunday is “the slowest day, with 35.1 fewer births than average. Scheduled c-sections and induced labors have a big influence on the fact that far fewer babies are born on the weekend, but spontaneous (non-scheduled) deliveries occur less often on the weekend too” (http://www.babycenter.com/0_surprising-facts-about-birth-in-the-united-s...).

I entered my birth date on a website to find the weekday on which I was born (http://www.fi.edu/time/Journey/OnceUponATime/dayofweekbirth.htm). Later, my curiosity caused me to enter the birth dates of 50 family and friends to find the weekdays of their births. The results are listed below:

Day of the Week    Number Born on This Day    Percent Born on This Day
Monday                           4                                      8%
Tuesday                          5                                    10%
Wednesday                    12                                    24%
Thursday                         8                                    16%
Friday                             6                                     12%
Saturday                         7                                     14%
Sunday                           8                                     16%

Based on those 50 people, the most popular birthing day of the week was Wednesday, not Tuesday. The second most popular days were Thursday and Sunday, not Monday. My group of people just didn’t match the overall U.S. statistics.

Birth is a unique moment. According to Psalm 127:3 (NIV), children are “a reward” from the Lord. The weekday of our birth is not too important, but the gift of life certainly is.