The overdue blues: When your baby's due date comes...and goes

September 6, 1999
Web posted at: 10:08 AM EDT (1408 GMT)

In this story: Cause for concern? Testing, one, two, three To induce or not to induce? RELATEDS

By Ann Douglas

You've got an appointment to meet your baby -- or at least you think you have. As helpful as it would be to know the exact day and hour of your baby's arrival, it's impossible to predict your delivery date with this degree of accuracy (unless, of course, you're having a planned cesarean).

If you're like most pregnant women, you're probably putting too much faith in your due date, assuming that Junior will make his grand entrance on a particular day because the chart at the doctor's office says so. The truth is that the due date you're told is an educated guess at best -- only one in every 20 babies enters the world on the given date.

Cause for concern?

You've no doubt read all the scary sections of your pregnancy book -- including the ones that talk about the awful things that can happen when a pregnancy goes overdue. It's important to understand that there's a world of difference between being overdue (i.e., past your due date) and postdates (i.e., giving birth to a baby more than two weeks past the due date). In most cases there's no need to worry about your baby's well-being if you're merely overdue. If, however, your doctor is confident that your due date is accurate and your baby is more than two weeks late, she'll probably want to bring your baby into the world sooner rather than later. Here's why:

Testing, one, two, three

While all these complications are rare when your baby is less than two weeks overdue, they become increasingly likely if your pregnancy progresses beyond that point. Your doctor will monitor you closely once your due date comes and goes, possibly sending you for a various tests. Those may include monitoring the baby's heart rate via external monitoring equipment for up to 40 minutes (a nonstress test), monitoring the baby's heart rate during a forced contraction (a contraction stress test) or getting a biophysical profile via ultrasound to assess the baby's breathing movements, body or limb movements, fetal tone, and quantity of amniotic fluid.

To induce or not to induce?

Your doctor will weigh a number of factors to determine whether you should be left to go into labor naturally or have it induced. Here are a few of the factors that she's likely to take into account:

Ann Douglas is coauthor of "The Unofficial Guide to Having a Baby" (Macmillan, 1999).

RELATEDS AT :

Labor and Delivery
The Third Trimester

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RELATED SITES:

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology
American Medical Association: Staying Healthy During Pregnancy

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