The Imperial College London team said if all days had the same death rate as Tuesday, which has the lowest, there would be 770 fewer deaths per year.
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The rate of emergency readmissions for the baby within three days of birth was also higher for babies born on a Saturday and Sunday compared to weekdays (12.3 per thousand births compared to 11.8 per thousand births).
But Mr Hunt has faced a backlash from healthcare workers and medical staffing at weekends lies at the root of the current dispute between the Government and junior doctors who are threatening to strike.
The researchers wrote that the death rates were low – averaging 4,500 per year from 675,000 births – but the difference was significant, raising concerns on the level of care provided at hospitals at weekends.
Perinatal death rates in the first seven days after birth were highest on Thursday, followed by Saturday and Sunday, when fewer babies are delivered, while the lowest rate of perinatal death was on a Tuesday, the study found.
The researchers said they found clear evidence of poor care at weekends – but said there was no evidence this was due to a lack of senior doctors, as ministers have argued.
The largest effects were seen in the higher rates of death among babies, either as a stillbirth or death within the first seven days of birth (7% higher than weekdays), infections after childbirth (6% higher) and the baby suffering an injury during childbirth (6% higher).
A spokeswoman for NHS England said: “Most mums say they get excellent NHS maternity care, but for a small number of families that is not the case and it’s vital that we take every step to continuously improve quality and safety”.
Researchers from Imperial College London used the Hospital Episode Statistics database to analyze the details of deliveries at English NHS public service hospitals between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2012.
Babies were also more likely to be injured during birth at the weekend compared with weekdays with the rate rising from 14.5 per thousand during the week to 15.3 per thousand on Saturday and Sunday.
It found there were 7.1 deaths per 1,000 babies delivered at weekends which is 7% higher than on weekdays.
“However, even after making these adjustments, we found the rates of complications vary on different days”.
They looked at staffing levels in terms of which hospitals were compliant with the guidelines for consultant cover, and found little difference between those that were and those that were not.
Nevertheless, they say their study represents the most comprehensive assessment of its type of the “weekend effect” in obstetric care, and they suggest that further work is needed “to understand what organisational factors might influence the weekend effect and to investigate centres that have reduced the disparities in access and outcome in out of hours care”.
“Midwifery and maternity staffing levels are the same on weekends as they are on weekdays”.
The contracts were designed, in part, to make it cheaper to have more doctors working at weekends.
But he suggested that lack of other staff could be to blame.
The study concluded: “Solutions will require extra resources and all our creativity, to determine what explains the apparent protective effect of week day delivery and how to extend these benefits to women who deliver at the weekend, and their babies”.
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More reseah is needed to safeguard mothers and babies during vulnerable times, they said.
