It’s become more popular to have a holiday baby, say statistics. Experts predict that more babies will be born on December 28th than on any other single day of 2006. The reason for more inductions and elective c-sections on that day is not only to avoid an unfortunate birth day, understaffed hospitals and to ensure there are family members around to help.
There are also good financial reasons.
American couples whose babies are born on January first 2007, rather than December 31 2006, may end up as much as $1000 poorer, reported the International Herald Tribune.

The article outlines research by two economists, Amitabh Chandra from Harvard and Stacy Dickert-Conlin of Michigan State University who say that the rising popularity of inductions and elective c-sections in December may be linked to taxes.

• They found that people who stood to gain the most from the tax breaks were also the ones who gave birth in late December most frequently. When the gains were similar, high-income parents — who, presumably, are more likely to be paying for tax advice — produced more December babies than other parents.

  The child tax credit, now worth $500, made its debut in 1998, and the earned-income tax credit, an anti- poverty policy that’s more generous to large families than small ones, became much larger in the ’90s. The personal exemption, for its part, has risen along with inflation, reaching $3,300 this year.

The busiest time in American maternity wards used to be in September.

Babies don’t come with coupons and they are expensive, so if an early-January due date can be brought forward, so be it. Especially since a child born on January first has to wait an extra year to start school and that will cost a small fortune in extra day cares costs….Is anyone surprised that Thrify Mommy’s Kelly was born in December?

Post from: Babylune