Women who deliver after their due date – normal or wrong due date?
…the answer is that on average 10% of babies are late. And almost every woman in the US who has prenatal care has her official due date set by ultrasound. Discussion 3 to 12 percent of babies are “postmature,” that is they don’t want to leave the womb when everyone outside thinks they are supposed to. And an actual 10% hang on after 40 weeks. An additional 1 to 3% of preganancies need to be induced for health reasons, among them that by staying longer in the womb the baby may become too large for safe childbirth or the environment within the uterus may become too degraded to support the baby any longer. Counting from the date of the last period is pretty much no longer done in the US as just about every woman undergoes an ultrasound from which doctors determine the stage of development of the fetus and hence the official due date. And apparently, ultrasound is just as inaccurate as any other method at predicting when the baby will actually make its appearance naturally. In fact, just
