I’m guilty of it, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. At thirty-seven weeks pregnant, I found myself trying nearly every trick in the book to start labor naturally (it didn’t work). From what I understood, thirty-seven weeks was full term and the sooner I could go into labor, the better. I was uncomfortable! But I was also wrong.
A new study suggests that many women do not know what constitutes a full term birth. Like me, more than half of women consider thirty-seven to thirty-eight weeks full term. Research shows, however, that thirty-nine to forty weeks is optimal. The study indicated that any delivery short of thirty-nine weeks puts a baby at higher risk for respiratory distress, sepsis, and a stay in the NICU.
Part of the problem is that mothers and doctors alike put so much emphasis on the due date, when in fact we should all have our eyes on a due week, or two. If a pregnant woman’s due date is a week off, and she has an elective cesarean at thirty-seven weeks, she may actually only be thirty-six weeks along, putting her baby at risk. Furthermore, not all babies are fully developed at the same time. Some babies truly need forty-one weeks before they are ready to be born and delivering these babies at thirty-seven or even thirty-eight weeks could have serious consequences.
In the last ten years, preterm births have risen twenty percent. That’s significant, especially considering that some doctors are now saying that defining a full term pregnancy as thirty-seven weeks is outdated. For every week that a baby is born before thirty-nine weeks, their risk increases for problems and even death. Everyone has likely heard of or known a baby that was born early and did just fine, but why take a chance. Women should take these facts into consideration when contemplating an induction or cesarean prior to thirty-nine weeks. If you can wait, statistics show that you should.