By Harriet Tatham
Have you ever wondered why March is a busy birthday month?
A new study suggests Australians are more inclined to exert themselves between the sheets when they can avoid getting hot and sweaty.
Last month the Sunshine Coast had its most fruitful month to date, with a record 258 babies born at Nambour Hospital.
Women’s and Family Services acting director Keppel Schafer said the numbers were in line with the Sunshine Coast’s annual birth pattern.
And he said winter weather conditions were the reason behind last month’s baby boom.
"The ongoing trivia that we have amongst the trade is that it's the first cool change that the coast experiences in June or July in the year before," he said.
"That probably sees us very busy nine months later in the following March.
"I think there's a bit more snuggling under the doona and then there's a new baby in a bunny rug nine months later."
Mr Schafer said there was also another baby bump in September, which he believed was due to the holiday season nine months earlier in December.
"I think it's the warmth and the doona for March and the relaxation and celebration for the September babies," he said.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggests this is a state-wide phenomenon.
Between 2004 and 2014, the number of babies born during March on average in Queensland was 5,243, almost 200 more than the second most popular birth month in May.
Temperature impacts our sexual patterns: expert
While it is very difficult to isolate and measure the impact of temperature on our sexual patterns, an American academic said this connection could become increasingly important.
Alan Barreca, an associate professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, is one of three economists who studied almost 80 years of weather and birth data between 1931 and 2010, and found a strong link between weather and birth rates.
"Around the world there are these really strong seasonal patterns in birth," he said.
"In the United States and Europe, there's actually a pretty big spike in births in the summer months, and if you go back nine months that implies that conceptions are most likely to occur in the colder winter months," Professor Barreca said.
"When you go to Australia, some of the highest birth rates are in March.