Which books have you read? Maybe the baby is coming on time but our dates were miscalculated? Maybe babies born before 42 are actually small? Who knows - there are far too may inductions these days to know real averages

The last birth I attended, she was 40 weeks and when her waters broke, there was brown staining. So the baby had passed meconium (poo) and it wasn't fresh as it's normally green - it had turned brown due to having been there for a little while. No-one would have known this should her waters have remained in tact. She went into labour spontaneously, they let her labour on her own still, without the drip until things started slowing down - it was a long birth. They have paeds come in to check the baby in this instance after it is born and they suction the nose and mouth if need be, to prevent inhalation at birth. But this doesn't happen all the time! It is more common in longer labours and this had been going on for days.

It's just one of those things, Elijah was born 5lbs 15oz and was about 9 days early I think. I doubt that in 2-3 weeks he would have grown to 8 or 9 pounds. So it's all very well and good to say they are bigger - yes they are a week or two bigger than what they would have been at say 40 weeks (they dont have hugely accelerated growth at this stage though!), but that doesn't mean they are going to be more developmentally mature. If a baby is not ready to come, maybe it knows it hasn't quite done it's time yet? If you are 41 weeks now, I don't think your bubs will do a huge amount of growing in one week. Trust your body and your baby to do this! 42 weeks is still classed as term and when you reach that with no labour yet, perhaps you can ask for a stretch and sweep as a first instance thing. It's MUCH better than having artificial oxytocin in your body.