Post-Dates Pregnancy: Being "Overdue" Isn't so Bad!

Even though all respectable medical and informational publications list the normal length of pregnancy as being anywhere from 37 to 42 weeks (that's a 5 week range!), there is tremendous pressure for mothers to deliver on or before their due dates. Doctors, relatives, midwives, strangers, and mothers themselves seem to get incredibly nervous if a mother actually reaches her due date without delivering. Heaven forbid she should still be carrying the baby at 41 weeks. And a 42 week pregnancy is almost unthinkable these days. Caregivers will come up with a million reasons to induce, most based on "what if" and liability concerns rather than real medical issues.

My last two children were born a few days after 42 weeks had passed. I was under tremendous pressure to induce labor from 40 weeks on, and had to fight hard to avoid it. I did not want to have an induced labor for non-medical reasons due to the risks it carries, but my caregivers listed every possible disastrous outcome they could think of, even though we all knew the babies and myself were perfectly healthy, the risks of post-dates pregnancy are minimal, and that their "concerns" were for legal reasons. At 41 weeks with my latest pregnancy the doctor just gave up trying to persuade me and said she'd get the legal department at the hospital to pull together all the liability waivers I would have to sign.

But she warned me that I was going to have a huge baby (over 11 pounds), that he was likely to get stuck at the shoulders (shoulder dystocia) and die, and that there was a great risk of me tearing "from stem to stern" and needing surgical repair. Those were all scare tactics and nothing that she could back up with research, and I knew from experience and the experience of others that such risks were minimal. My two post-dates pregnancies ended in quick, easy births. Less than 6 hours hard labor both times, no shoulder dystocia, minimal tearing, and the babies and I were fine. The only thing my caregivers were correct about was the size of my babies, 9 lb 15 oz and 10 lb 8 oz respectively and their sizes did not negatively impact them, myself, or the births.