





- A baby is born every seven seconds.

- Every day, over 1,300 babies are born prematurely in the USA.

- Birth rates slumped almost 2 percent in 2008, falling from an all-time U.S. high of more than 4.3 million babies born in 2007. Many blame the tumultuous economy for the drop, the first since the decade began.

- The state with the highest birth rate is Mississippi.

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- The most popular day for babies to make their entrance? It's now Wednesday. Sunday is the slowest day. The fact that far fewer babies were born on the weekend may be influenced partly by scheduled labor induction and c-sections, according to the CDC. But vaginal births also occur less often on the weekend.

- More newborns arrive during the late summer and early fall months of July, August, and September than any other time of the year. In 2006, August hosted the most U.S. baby births. The CDC's National Center for Health and Statistics, says it may be because nine months before that, more people are indoors with their significant others.

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- Fewer than 10% of babies are born on their exact due date, 50% are born within one week of the due date, and 90% are born within two weeks of the date.

- The average size of a full-term baby in the U.S. is 8 pounds. This is an increase from an average size of 6 pounds 30 years ago.

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- The largest baby ever born weighed in at over 23 pounds but died just 11 hours after his birth in 1879. The largest surviving baby was born in October 2009 in Sumatra, Indonesia and weighed an astounding 19.2 pounds at birth.

- Babies are born with very poor vision but can recognize their mothers almost right away.

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- Babies are born with swimming abilities and can naturally hold their breath. However, they shortly lose this instinct.

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- Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until they are 2-6 years old.

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