This Hospital Delivered 48 Babies In 41 Hours & Woof, Even I'm Exhausted

When contemplating adding a baby to the family, many couples purposefully try to "plan" for specific times of the year. Maybe they want to avoid certain dates, like Christmas. Or perhaps summer months logistically work better because they're both teachers. For whatever reason, more babies tend to be born during certain months of the year than others: summer and early fall. Time and time again, the highest rates of babies being born in the United States happen in the months of July, August, and September — which means it's that time of the year again! Interestingly, it seems one Texas hospital in particular experienced a bit of an early "baby boom" this year. That's because this hospital delivered 48 babies in 41 hours. And even I'm exhausted just reading that.

On Tuesday, June 26, Baylor Scott and White All Saints Medical Center in Forth Worth, Texas, delivered a record number of babies, The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) reported. A total of 48 babies were born in less than two days, meaning the maternity ward was hustling to deliver an average of more than one newborn per hour. (I mean, can you even imagine?)

Naturally, many people are likely wondering what could be behind this late-June baby boom. “There’s always talk about full moon, we definitely had a big full moon this week,” Dr. Jamie Eriwn, an OBGYN at Baylor Scott, told KTVT. “Maybe there is something to that as well, maybe not. But it’s always a busy time of the year.” In Texas, July, August, and September are typically the most popular birth months, according to KTVT. And the least popular? February.

Nursing director Michelle Stemley said her phone was going wild with notifications on Wednesday. “People were asking about staffing,” she told KTVT. “I was like, ‘what’s going on?’" But ultimately, Baylor Scott had everything under control. Extra staff members were called into work, pizza was ordered — and they are ready for more. “We are trained for this,” she added, according to KTVT.

Even to the laboring moms, staff members at Baylor Scott's maternity ward seemed well-prepared to handle the record-setting baby spree. One mom — who gave brith to a baby boy named Isiah during the baby boom — didn't even realize how busy it was at the time. “I didn’t even know, the staff was so calm,” first-time mom Lamenshaney Harris said, according to AJC. “It was a tearful moment but it was joyful. I had a rush of joy. Motherhood is really life changing, you never know it until the baby is born.”

While the sweltering summer months of July, August, and September tend to see the most births in Texas, according to KTVT, on a national level September seems to be the most popular month to have a baby. Fun Fact: TIME reported in 2017 that the most popular birth date is actually Sept. 9. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), August had the most U.S. births in 2006, as well as 10 of the previous 16 years, Live Science reported in 2010. So yeah — summer and the beginning of fall are definitely popular times to welcome a baby.

I remember when I was in labor with my first child in mid-August — that hospital was definitely hopping with contracting women and newborns. (Not so much when I delivered by second child on a blizzard-y January morning or my third child on a mild-April morning.) Interestingly, half of my soon-to-be four children have/had due dates during the winter months, which isn't typically a popular time of the year to be born. But hey, it happens. At least when baby number four is ready to come into this world, I won't have to worry about my hospital not having any beds available. And personally, I'll take the possibility of snowy weather and a nearly-empty maternity ward over being nine months pregnant in this heat — any day.