Science News Archive

Pray for a Baby

Prayer seems to almost double the success rate of in vitro fertilization procedures that lead to pregnancy. The study, involving 200 Korean women, found that a group of 100 women who had people praying for them had a 50 percent pregnancy rate compared with a 26 percent rate in the group of 99 women who did not have people praying for them. None of the women undergoing the IVF procedures, nor the doctors treating them, knew about the praying. The people praying for the women lived in the United States, Canada, and Australia, were from Christian denominations, and were incapable of knowing or contacting the women undergoing the IVF procedures. They began to pray within five days of the treatment beginning. Besides finding a higher pregnancy rate among the women who had a group praying for them, the researchers found older women seemed to benefit more from prayer.

29th Sep 2001