The Truth About Due Dates

What if I go past my "due date"?

Of women who are induced, near 60% report that it is because they were near, at, or past their "due dates." (Listening to Mother's survey 2013)

Inducing for postdates is considered "active management" of labor.

Evidence based birth has published an article on induction for postdates, and you can find it here: https://evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-on-inducing.../

Due dates are not an exact science. The Perinatal Institute reports that only about 4% of babies are born on their predicted "date". Most pregnancies last between 259 and 294 days (which is a difference of 35 days!)

One of the major concerns of doctors (especially of moms in an older age category) is that the risk of stillbirth increases - Many physicians will even state that "it doubles" - after 40 weeks.

TRUTH: it increases, but what they fail to report is that it increases from 0.0001% to 0.0032%. There is less than a 1% increase in stillbirth risk at 42 weeks!

This is where the doctors find themselves in a bind again. They have to cover themselves on the slight chance that you are the 1 in 320,000 women who may have a stillbirth and might sue them for doing nothing about it. Therefore, they recommend that EVERY woman deliver before or within a couple days of their due dates.

So, before you find yourself pushed into an induction for postdates, do your research. Know the numbers. Stand for what you believe and take responsibility for your body and your baby.

*These statistics apply to healthy women with average healthy pregnancies at term (not taking into account preterm deliveries, preterm loss, miscarriage, and does not apply to advanced maternal age - additional information can be found at www.evidencebasedbirth.com)