🗓️ DUE DATES 🗓️ - How many babies come when they're "due"?
🗓️ Only approximately 3-5% of babies are actually born on their "due" date!
🗓️ About 50% of pregnant people go into labour on their own by 40 weeks and 5 days, the other 50% will not.
🗓️ About 90% of pregnant people will go into labour on their own by 42 weeks.
It can be discouraging to go past your expected "due" date when everyone is asking you day in and day out if you've had the baby yet. Instead of sharing a due date with friends and family, you could consider sharing a "due month" or a "guess week" to alleviate some of that pressure!
Due date is calculated by adding 280 days, or 40 weeks, to the first day of the last menstrual period. The problem with this is that not everyone has regular 28 day menstrual cycles. A more reliable tool is a dating ultrasound (11-14 weeks gestation), which calculates due date by measuring fetal growth and development. However, it still can't take into account parental genetic makeup differences that would impact size of the baby.
BOTTOM LINE: Most pregnant people will go into labour on their own by 42 weeks gestation. Don't put too much emphasis on any particular date, every pregnancy is different!
Were your babies born on their "due" dates?
RESOURCES:
https://evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-on-due-dates/
https://evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-on-inducing-labor-for-going-past-your-due-date/