Risky Summer Pregnancies?

Old wives' tales have long held that it is better not to be born in a certain season (which season depends on which old wife). Physicians are now trying to find out whether there is any basis for the notion. Last week the American Public Health Association, meeting in Cleveland, heard unexpected findings.

As Ohio State University's Professor (of Pediatrics) Hilda Knobloch told it, she and Psychiatrist Benjamin Pasamanick had reasoned that more mentally deficient children would be born in late summer and early fall, because virus infections, which can damage the fetus, are commonest in winter. But when they checked the birth dates of nearly 6,000 mentally deficient children born in Columbus from 1913 through 1948, they found, on the contrary, least mental deficiency among babies born in August, September and October. It was commonest among those born in the year's first quarter, with the peak among February births. Why?

A first-quarter birth meant that the crucial early months of pregnancy had been in the heat of summer. The winters when most mentally deficient children were born had followed exceptionally hot summers. Dr. Knobloch's conclusion: the mothers had not eaten enough--certainly not a balanced diet with adequate protein --with consequent damage to their developing babies.

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