Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [birth]

The act of producing offspring.

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Have only girls been born for a long time in this village?

German media has reported that a village in Poland has had only girls born for the last decade: The head of the parish promises a reward, the Catholic village priest asks for God's help: In the Polish village of 300 souls, Mistitz, no boys have…
J. Doe
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A century ago, was giving birth a major cause of death?

When reading this article on BBC News I was surprised by the following claim: Just compare now to what happened 100 years ago or so. Then, many women died in their 40s because of having to give birth many times. Lots of people died young. This…
AndyT
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Is home birthing as safe as in-hospital births for low risk mothers?

I came across the following page, describing "The Farm"'s midwifery statistics: http://www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com/farm-statistics.html That page wasn't that convincing. The only statistic that it directly compared against conventional birthing…
Andrew Grimm
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Is Barack Obama's SSN valid?

The latest conspiracy theory surrounding the validity of Barack Obama's Presidency is his Social Security Number. Some people are claiming that his SSN is a Connecticut SSN, but he never lived there (his Father did though). For example, Orly Taitz…
Kenny Wyland
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Do C-Section born babies have worse immune systems?

I have recently been doing research about the health benefits of probiotics. While doing this research I have come across an interesting claim that "During a delivery through the birth canal, a newborn picks up bacteria from his/her mother.…
jsmith
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Is or was the husband's knot/stitch a medical procedure?

The "husband's knot" or "husband's stitch" is supposedly a medical procedure that involves adding an extra suture when performing an episiotomy in order to make a woman's vagina tighter, resulting more pleasurable sexual intercourse for her husband…
William Grobman
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Does the USA grant citizenship to whomever is born in their airspace?

So I just found out about a Canadian woman who gave birth on an Air Canada flight on her way to Tokyo on mothers day. In this article: Ada Guan, B.C. woman who gave birth on plane, didn't know she was pregnant, it states, ...depending on where…
ShemSeger
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Is nitrous oxide not used during labor in US hospitals because it is cheaper?

In much (most?) of the world, women are able to use laughing gas (nitrous oxide) to relieve pain during childbirth, but this is almost never available to women in the United States. Several websites (for example,Laughing gas making a comeback for…
user26744
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Did an American woman give birth to 17 babies at once?

World News Daily Report claims: An American woman has totally annihilated the former World Record for the most babies in a lone pregnancy by giving birth to seventeen babies over 29 hours last weekend at the Indianapolis Memorial Hospital. Other…
Rebecca J. Stones
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Does water therapy provide measurable benefits to childbirth?

I recently watched the trailer for The Business of Being Born, which included the following quote: "The presence of Doulas; using water during labor; these things have been scientifically shown to generate better outcomes. I did some looking…
Beofett
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Are more babies born during full moons?

I've heard from multiple sources -- a simple google search will confirm -- that significantly more babies are born during full moon periods. Are there any studies supporting or disputing the purported relationship between births and lunar cycles?
Sklivvz
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Do toilets that require squatting reduce birth complications in women?

When I was travelling in France, I encountered toilets without toilet seats. Essentially they require the user to squat. I was told that as a result, French women had fewer birth complications. Is it true that regular use of squat-toilets makes…
mycat
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Have fewer children with Down Syndrome been born in the United States?

According to this 2009 ABC News article the number of children born with Down Syndrome has dropped in the USA: In the absence of prenatal testing, the United States would have experienced a 34 percent increase in the number of Down births between…
Grasper
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Do depleted uranium shells cause birth defects?

I've seen a few articles on depleted uranium rounds possibly causing birth defects in the last few years, but most of the articles have a 'doubter'. From what I can tell, the numbers aren't conclusive. This environmental health site's paper seems…
Daniel
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Are babies natural swimmers?

This 1980 New Scientist column article says that Human babies can swim instinctively at a few weeks old, and although they lose this ability at a few months they learn quickly if introduced to the water and taught how to swim when a couple or…
smUsamaShah
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