I think its worth remembering that the method used to calculate your due date (40 weeks from the first day of your last period or 38 weeks from ovulation) is a VERY OLD method and is can be used as a rough guide at best. If you planted an apple tree on a particular day, would you expect the first lot of apples on that tree to ripen and fall off the tree at the same time? Of course not. Our babies and our bodies are so unique and we all need different lengths of time in the oven until we are ready to be served!!
Left alone to nature, the baby is the one who releases the hormones responsible for triggering labour contractions- which generally come on slow and regular at a pace which is not going to cause distress to bub. Births that are artificially induced via synthetic hormones (synto) have a much higher rate of intervention- (particularly c/section & pain relief), as the synto drip causes contractions to come on faster and harder than they would naturally. Thus the woman opts for pain relief sooner than she may in a spontaneous labour, which of course comes with its own risks and disadvantages- particular amoung them a woman's inability to feel her own contractions and thus know when best to push. These rapid contactions are also more likely to cause distress to the baby, leading to decreased heart rate and often emergency c-section.
The genuine statistics for women who will NOT go into labour spontaneously if left alone are incredibly rare. Something like 99.9% of women who go past their estimated "due date" WILL go into spontaneous labour within 2& 1/2 weeks (17 days) of their EDD. Those who don't are known to have rare medical conditions.
Your baby and your body alone know when the safest time to deliver is. The rates of artificial intervention during birth would be drastically reduced if the medical community had more respect for the incredible innate ability of the baby and the woman's body to do what nature intended for it to do, when the time is right. We need to stop perpetuating fear into women who all too often go against their baby's and bodies will in order to fullfill some sort of rigid criteria which is outdated and is in desperate need of review.
This post is not intended to offend anyone who has opted not to wait for a spontaneous labour due to medical recommendation. Of course there are situations when artificial induction may be necessary, but being 2,3 or even 10 days 'overdue' when you and your baby are prefectly healthy is not a valid medical reason for doing so. Some babies need 37 weeks in the womb- others may need 42 weeks- and these are both absolutely normal and natural. Remember that YOU are in charge of your birth - not anyone else!! Through education about how our bodies work, and how women throughout the ages the world over have birthed, we can become empowered to make balanced and informed choices.
DD was born at EDD+11 and i had been booked for induction by AROM at EDD+14 and had absolutely no intention of actually going in for it!
The stillbirth risks increase in the 43rd week, so they don't like you to get into it. The risk increases 6fold - that's 0.4 stillbirths per 1000 births up to 2.7 per 1000. For me that "substantial" (from way less than 0.04% to 0.27% increase in risk (which by the way is from a study done in the 1950's) was not enough to make me worry or consider induction - studies have shown that induction before 42 weeks make no difference to neonatal mortality rates. Most overdue babies who die are born between 42 and 43 weeks, but this is true whether they are induced at that point or not - fewer die if they're born at 43 weeks, so it makes as much sense to try to prevent birth between 42 and 43 weeks as it does to hasten it before 42 weeks.
I had scans and monitoring to made sure DD was fine (she was) every 3 days for the last 2 weeks (i had high BP so they started monitoring me a bit sooner than 40weeks) but i don't even know if i'd bother doing that next time.
My placenta looked perfect and DD had short nails and masses of vernix and didn't look 11 seconds overdue, let alone 11 days!
My sister was born at EDD+24 (that's right, nearly a month!) after a 96 hour posterior labour and she was absolutely perfect.
Side effects of induction
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