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throwaway30yo | 8 years ago

When it took off, it was only 1086.

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uniformlyrandom|8 years ago

I had to skim the article to make sure you were not kidding. In retrospect, this is not so unusual - this was a rescue operation, so regular no-flying constraints did not apply. And normally, ~4% of women are pregnant, so EV for number of pregnant and ready to give birth women is 10860.04(percentarge pregnant)0.5(percentage of women)/9(only 9-month pregnant are ready to give birth) ~= 2.41. What surprising is that they gave birth during the flight, and not on any other day of the month. TRansition from danger to relative safety, I guess?

whatever_dude|8 years ago

A rescue operation probably prioritized "women and children first" so I'd assume there's a higher likelihood of pregnant women in flight, therefore higher likelihood of births.

FabHK|8 years ago

Yes, so if time of birth is uniformly random (haha) across the final month, then, assuming the flight took, say, half a day, you'd still have to multiply by 0.5/30, so have only ~0.05 expected child births. Still surprising, in other words. Good chance pregnant women were prioritised.

Banthum|8 years ago

I feel fairly comfortable saying that in a group of Ethiopians in 1991, probably more than 4% are pregnant. For comparison, I've read that 10% of Syrian women in the refugee camps were pregnant at any given time. Doing the math (with world bank stats):

Ethiopia fertility 1991: 7.2

Ethiopia female life expectancy 1991: 49

Total pregnancy time: 7.2 * 0.75 years = 5.4 years

Lifespan proportion spent pregnant: 5.4 / 49 = 11%

nly|8 years ago

Maybe they evacuated a maternity unit.

avip|8 years ago

500 women in age give ~10 birth/year. Probability of birth in a given day is therefore 100 * (1 - (364 / 365.0) ^ 10) ~ 3%

mesofile|8 years ago

and/or change in atmospheric pressure?