Do animals really prefer to give birth at night?

Mare Stare

Mare Stare

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Or is it just a myth?

I'm sitting here hoping my baby will decide to put in an appearance soon (officially due tomorrow but was hoping to have had it over the weekend) and I keep coming across this statement on the net.

Hubby, who comes from a farming family, isn't convinced and says animals give birth just like us - when the baby is ready and not before. And I have spent most of the weekend trying to convince baby that the time has come (through telepathy, curries and warm baths!) to no avail so I'm not convinced that the mother does play a part in deciding when to give birth.

So, I just wondered what other people thought?
 
I laboured through the night with both of mine. First started at 1 am and wasn't born until midnight the following day, the second started at 8pm and was born at 8 am the following day. I can honestly say that I had no influence whatsoever.
 
I started very mild, no more painful than cramp labour, at 4am, went to hospital at 6am, baby born 8am. Afaik its a case of they come when they're ready day or night.
 
littlelegs said:
I started very mild, no more painful than cramp labour, at 4am, went to hospital at 6am, baby born 8am. Afaik its a case of they come when they're ready day or night.
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Goodness me, that was quick. Mine started with very severe contractions coming every five minutes, and lasted 23 hours and 12 hours respectively. The longest hours of my life!
 
Wagtail- I know just how lucky I was, second stage labour was 15 mins which I know isn't the norm. Hearing the more usual experiences of others makes me grateful for my labour every time!
 
I know my dogs give birth at night 90% of the time. If it's in the day the process has usually started at night. Something to do with less predators about at night I expect so it would apply to all mammals I imagine. Or just maybe something to do with there being less Vets about at night so they can charge a fortune to come out !!!!!!!!!!
 
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With horses, the foal determines the day once ready and the mare determines the hour by finetuning(so they say!). Around 90% of horses foal at night. In the wild they would foal at night as this is the safest time regarding threat from predators so its instinctive. As this is luckily something humans don't have to contend with when giving birth I would imagine it comes when it's comes!! A friend of mine was also told to walk up and down on a small step or along the pavement by her midwife, or ride in a vehicle along a bumpy road?!?
 
with both my kids the first pains were at about 3am first child born at 10.04am, 2nd at 10.34am, so not quite a night birth but it certainly started at night:rolleyes: most inconvenient being woken at that time and having to try and wake a snoring hubby.
most of the cattle on the farm seem to calve at night, they take themselves away from the rest of the herd and hide in a hedge somewhere and by next morning there's a calf(if you're lucky) the mother moves the calf from the original site once it's up and about and she's passed the afterbirth, her way of ensuring that any predators attracted to the afterbirth don't find a yummy calf too. for the first few days the calf stays hidden away from the herd even when the cow goes back to them, i guess this gives the calf time to bond totally with her so that when it does join the herd it doesn't make the mistake of trying to feed off someone else. animals still retain their instincts to do things a certain way to give themselves and their offspring the best chance of survival, we don't have to do that anymore so i guess that's why we give birth at any time of day:confused:
 
littlelegs said:
Wagtail- I know just how lucky I was, second stage labour was 15 mins which I know isn't the norm. Hearing the more usual experiences of others makes me grateful for my labour every time!
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Blimey! You will have to be very careful if you have a second one as they tend to come quicker!
 
I think animals prefere to give birth when they can get to a quiet place and do so in peace...which in many cases of domestic livestock tends to be at night ;)
 
Wagtail said:
Blimey! You will have to be very careful if you have a second one as they tend to come quicker!
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not always though, both of mine were 7 hours start to finish, with the first i was booked into the hospital at 9.54am and he was born at 10.04 am, that was cutting it a bit too close so with the 2nd i insisted on going into hospital a bit earlier;)
 
With my first, I went into labor about quarter to four in the morning, and he was born at 6:07. They told me that it meant my next could come even faster, but with my daughter, I went into labor about 4:30ish in the morning, and she was born at 11:16am.

With our animals, the dogs usually gave birth at night, though a couple were in the morning. We've never had one give birth in the afternoon that I can remember. Our rabbits tended to give birth at night, though one had hers during the afternoon. So on the whole, we've seen mostly night births.
 
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