How Many Weeks Is A Pregnancy?

How Many Weeks Is A Pregnancy
How long is full term? – Pregnancy lasts for about 280 days or 40 weeks. A preterm or premature baby is delivered before 37 weeks of your pregnancy.

Extremely preterm infants are born 23 through 28 weeks. Moderately preterm infants are born between 29 and 33 weeks. Late preterm infants are born between 34 and 37 weeks.

Babies born before 39 weeks have a greater chance of breathing problems, low blood sugar and other problems that may result in being admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
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Contents

Why is pregnancy 40 weeks but 9 months?

Is a pregnancy 9 or 10 months? – Your 40 weeks of pregnancy are counted as nine months. That’s because each month (except February) is about 4.3 weeks long.
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Is a pregnancy 9 months or 10?

How long does pregnancy last? Pregnancy is counted from the first day of your last menstrual period. This means an extra 2 weeks are counted at the beginning of your pregnancy when you aren’t actually pregnant. So pregnancy lasts 10 months (40 weeks)—not 9 months—because of these extra weeks.

Published: October 2020 Last reviewed: October 2020 Topics Copyright 2022 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. All rights reserved. Read, This information is designed as an educational aid for the public. It offers current information and opinions related to women’s health. It is not intended as a statement of the standard of care.

It does not explain all of the proper treatments or methods of care. It is not a substitute for the advice of a physician. Read, : How long does pregnancy last?
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Is pregnancy 36 weeks or 40 weeks?

What is a full-term pregnancy? Pregnancy usually lasts about 40 weeks (280 days) from the first day of your last menstrual period (also called LMP) to your due date, Your due date is the date that your provider thinks you will have your baby. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (also called ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (also called SMFM) define a full-term pregnancy as a pregnancy that lasts between 39 weeks, 0 days and 40 weeks 6 days.

Early term : Your baby is born between 37 weeks, 0 days and 38 weeks, 6 days. Full term : Your baby is born between 39 weeks, 0 days and 40 weeks, 6 days. Late term : Your baby is born between 41 weeks, 0 days and 41 weeks, 6 days. Postterm : Your baby is born after 42 weeks, 0 days.

How was the length of pregnancy defined in the past? In the past, a pregnancy that lasted anywhere between 37 to 42 weeks was called a term pregnancy. Health care providers once thought this 5-week period was a safe time for most babies to be born. In 2013, ACOG and SMFM updated the definitions for term pregnancies because research shows that every week of pregnancy counts for the health of your baby.

Lots of important things happen to your baby in the last few weeks of pregnancy. For example, your baby’s brain and lungs are still developing. Being pregnant for at least 39 weeks gives your baby’s body the time it needs to grow and develop. These definitions can help more babies be born healthy by helping to prevent births that are being scheduled a little early for non-medical reasons.

If your pregnancy is healthy, wait for labor to begin on its own. Last reviewed: September, 2018 See also: Pregnancy week by week feature, 39 weeks infographic, Why at least 39 weeks is best for your baby
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How many weeks is 9 months pregnant?

What Happens at 9 Months of Pregnancy? 36 Weeks Pregnant.
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What is the longest time a woman has been pregnant?

The longest pregnancy ever recorded was 375 days long (17 months). In comparison most women are pregnant for 280 days.
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At what point can a doctor read the baby’s gender?

Ultrasound – An ultrasound is a routine prenatal test where you’ll lie on a table and have your stomach scanned. This test uses sound waves to create an image of your baby, and it’s often used to check your baby’s development and health. Since an ultrasound creates an image of your baby, it can also reveal the sex of your baby.

Most doctors schedule an ultrasound at around 18 to 21 weeks, but the sex may be determined by ultrasound as early as 14 weeks, It’s not always 100 percent accurate, though. Your baby might be in an awkward position, which makes it difficult to clearly see the genitals. If the technician can’t find a penis, they’ll conclude that you’re having a girl and vice versa.

But mistakes do happen.
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Can a baby stay in the womb for 12 months?

November 17, 2018 – In Australia, the chance of pregnancies going beyond 42 weeks gestation is in the order of less than five per cent. Jackie Chan has claimed he was born three months overdue, spending a total of 12 months in his mother’s womb. “It’s highly unlikely that you would have a pregnancy that would go beyond 10 or 11 months. Highly unlikely” Read all the details at Mamamia
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How many weeks is 4 months pregnant?

What Happens at 4 Months of Pregnancy? 16 Weeks Pregnant.
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Can 36 weeks be full term?

Early babies Babies born between 37 and 42 weeks of pregnancy are called ‘full term.’ Babies born between 34 and 36 full weeks of pregnancy are called ‘late preterm’ babies. Your baby may look and act like a baby born on its due date, but they are not fully mature and may have trouble in many ways.
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What weeks does labor start?

For most women, labor begins sometime between week 37 and week 42 of pregnancy. Labor that occurs before 37 weeks of pregnancy is considered premature, or preterm.
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What not to do in 8 month pregnancy?

What should you do for normal delivery in 8th month? – If you haven’t begun preparing for a normal delivery as yet, you should definitely begin to focus on your diet, incorporate exercise into your routine and read up about tips for a normal delivery,

Supriya was keen to know whether there was any special diet she should follow at this time. Monitor your pregnancy diet at 8 months “There is no special diet that you should follow” reassured Dr Anita.”You should eat small frequent meals. Make sure you avoid oily and spicy food, especially junk food.” “Continue eating fresh fruits, vegetables and fibres to prevent constipation, which is common in pregnancy.

Drink enough water to keep yourself hydrated at all times.” Read: Piles during Pregnancy – How to Cope with Piles when Pregnant Prepare for Labour and Delivery Many couples find it helpful to attend a Labour and Delivery Class to understand what to expect in labour and to learn techniques to manage labour pain.

  • Learn how to Breastfeed You can attend classes that teach you how to breastfeed and hold your baby.
  • You can also use the classes as a forum to ask a pediatrician and a lactation counselor any concerns about breastfeeding,
  • Supriya and her husband Arun jumped at the opportunity of enrolling in the ‘ Preparing for the New Arrival ‘ class.
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They wanted to be as informed as possible about how to take care of their newborn. Pack Your Hospital Bag You should also start packing things you will need during your delivery so that you don’t have to search for necessities at the last minute. Don’t know what to pack for the hospital? Check out our list ! Supriya and her husband listened to all the healthcare tips given by their doctor with rapt attention. How Many Weeks Is A Pregnancy This article has been written with Dr. Anita Sabherwal Anand, Consultant, Obstetrician-Gynecologist at Sitaram Bhartia Hospital in South Delhi. Dr. Anita is a highly qualified gynecologist with 20+ years of experience who is trusted by low-risk and high-risk mothers alike for her guidance on having a healthy pregnancy and delivery.
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Is Coke good for a pregnant woman?

Can I drink Coca‑Cola when pregnant? | Frequently Asked Questions Yes. The Food Standards Agency recommends that pregnant women shouldn’t take more than 200mg of caffeine a day. A can of Coca‑Cola Classic contains 32mg of caffeine and a can of Diet Coke contains 42mg.
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What to expect at 5 months pregnant?

What are the symptoms of pregnancy in the fifth month? – People usually feel fetal movements for the first time during the fifth month. It may feel like flutters or butterflies in your stomach. This is sometimes called quickening. The pregnancy symptoms of the fourth month continue this month.

Heartburn, constipation, breast changes, dizziness, shortness of breath, nose bleeds, and gum bleeding are common. Your breasts may be as much as 2 cup sizes bigger by now. We couldn’t access your location, please search for a location. Zip, City, or State Please enter a valid 5-digit zip code or city or state.

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Should I shave before giving birth?

Once upon a time, hospitals shaved pregnant women before delivery. Now, shaving isn’t recommended at all. Here’s why. When my friends and I were pregnant and approaching our due dates, I remember our hushed conversations over coffee. “Are you going to wax before the delivery ?” one of us would ask.

I don’t know how far in advance to wax or exactly when the baby’s coming, so I think I’ll just shave,” another would reply. One way or another, it was clear: We were all going to do something to prepare ourselves “down there” before we ended up in a delivery room, legs splayed out, in front of a medical team.

None of us knew then that shaving before labour is actually a no-no. Today, it’s common to find posters in your doctor’s office and plastered on hospital walls informing women that they shouldn’t shave their pubic hair beyond 36 weeks gestation. Recent research shows that it can increase the risk of infection for women who end up needing C-sections —and the last thing anyone needs after having a baby is a preventable infection.

  • The change in recommendation came about recently.
  • According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, which aimed to update research about hair removal and incidence of surgical site infection, significantly fewer infections occur with clipping, cream depilation or going au naturel than with shaving.

If you’ve heard the exact opposite—that you should shave before labour—that’s understandable because it used to be the recommendation. In fact, hospitals used to shave your pubic hair for you—and in some areas, they still do. “Shaving before labour was once thought to reduce infection rates,” says Toronto OB/GYN Dayna Freedman.

  1. But medical advice advances with research.
  2. Randomized control trials have shown no decrease in infections with hair removal and, in fact, have shown a slight increase with shaving compared to clipping or waxing before procedures.
  3. Hospital infection control doesn’t recommend at this time.” Although I delivered my youngest son six years ago, I still remember how much my friends and I worried that we would be embarrassed if we weren’t properly groomed.

It was probably a waste of our energy. The fact is, doctors don’t concern themselves with these matters. “The medical team is there to facilitate a safe delivery for both mother and child,” says Freedman. “We aren’t worried or thinking about the presentation of the patient’s perineum.” So don’t worry about being judged.
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What’s the shortest pregnancy?

Home Health & Medicine Anatomy & Physiology Alternate titles: fetal period, foetal period gestation, in mammals, the time between conception and birth, during which the embryo or fetus is developing in the uterus, This definition raises occasional difficulties because in some species (e.g., monkeys and man) the exact time of conception may not be known.

  • In these cases the beginning of gestation is usually dated from some well-defined point in the reproductive cycle (e.g., the beginning of the previous menstrual period).
  • The length of gestation varies from species to species.
  • The shortest known gestation is that of the Virginian opossum, about 12 days, and the longest that of the Indian elephant, about 22 months.

In the course of evolution the duration of gestation has become adapted to the needs of the species. The degree of ultimate growth is a factor, smaller animals usually having shorter periods of gestation than larger ones. Exceptions are the guinea pig and related South American rodents, in which gestation is prolonged (averaging 68 days for the guinea pig and 111 days for the chinchilla ).

The young of these species are born in a state of greater maturity than are those of the rat with its period of 22 days. Another factor is that, in many species with restricted breeding seasons, gestation is adjusted so that birth coincides with the period when food is most abundant. Thus the horse, a spring breeder with 11 months’ gestation, has its young the following spring, as does the sheep, a fall breeder with a five months’ gestation.

Animals that live in the open tend to have longer gestations and to bear young that have reached a state of greater maturity than do animals that can conceal their young in underground burrows or in caves. Marsupials generally have short gestations—e.g., 40 days for the largest kangaroos.

The young, born in an extremely immature state, transfer to the pouch in which gestation may be said to continue. Embryos of some species experience an arrest in development that greatly prolongs gestation. This is especially true of the fur-bearing carnivores the martens and weasels. Embryos of the European badger and American marten, which breed in July and August, develop for a few days, then lie dormant in the uterus, being implanted in January.

Birth occurs in March. Of the total gestation period of 250 days, growth occurs during only 50. Delayed implantation also occurs in mice and other small rodents that become pregnant while they are still suckling a litter, Either a single factor or a great number of minor factors, all culminating at or near one date, determine the length of gestation.

  • Several minor variations are known: in man, gestation for males is three to four days longer than that for females; and in cattle, bulls are carried about one day longer than heifers.
  • In both species gestation of twins is five to six days less than for singlets.
  • In animals such as the rabbit or pig, which bear many young at a time, gestation is shorter for larger litters than for smaller ones.
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Heredity also influences gestation; in cattle the mean gestation period for Holstein-Friesians is 279 days; for Brown Swiss, 290 days; other breeds fall between these extremes. When hybrids are produced by crossing two species with different gestation periods, the hybrid is carried for a period lying somewhere between those of the two parents and tending toward the mother’s species.
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What is the quickest birth ever?

This mom gave birth in just two minutes, and while it might be the shortest labor and delivery ever recorded, a fast or precipitate labor is not always a good thing. – An Australian mother wins the award for shortest labor ever after giving birth to her fifth child in two minutes flat.

  • And was she surprised? Not at all.
  • Amazingly, she’s never been in labor for longer than two hours.
  • It all happened when Mary Gorgens got up to go to the bathroom, two days before her baby was due, where she was surprised to feel her son’s head crowning,
  • She quickly woke up her husband, but when he ran to the bathroom himself, thinking he had time, it was too late: She had already delivered in 120 seconds! The amazing mama said she felt “no inkling, no feeling, no pain” ahead of the birth and was not expecting the baby that day.

But her friends might have: They like to joke that Gorgens “could sneeze and a baby would pop out.” They might be onto something: Her first baby was born just 12 minutes after Gorgens made it to the hospital, her second child was born in an hour and a half, and she gave birth to her next two children in the car,
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Do babies cry in the womb?

– While it’s true your baby can cry in the womb, it doesn’t make a sound, and it’s not something to worry about. The baby’s practice cries include imitating the breathing pattern, facial expression, and mouth movements of a baby crying outside of the womb.
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When should I stop lying on my back when pregnant?

What are the key messages for pregnant women? –

  • From 28 weeks of pregnancy, women should settle to sleep on their side for any episode of sleep, including:
    • Going to sleep at night
    • Returning to sleep after any awakenings
    • Day time naps
  • The going-to-sleep position is the one held longest during the night so women should not be concerned if they wake up on their back, but should simply roll back onto their side. Either side appears equally safe.

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What is freebirth?

– Unassisted childbirth (UC) also goes by the names freebirth or DIY birth. In its most basic definition, UC is intentionally birthing at home without a doctor, midwife, or other trained health professional in attendance. In 2017, 1 out of every 62 births in the United States happened outside of a hospital — amounting to 1.61 percent of births.

  • Those included births in birthing centers, at home (both planned and unplanned), and a few in “other” or unreported locations.
  • While there aren’t exact numbers for how many of those deliveries were purposefully unassisted births, data indicates that back in 2007, up to 33 percent of all home births in the United States were unassisted.

That was 8,708 births not attended by a physician or a midwife. Birth without medical assistance does happen in surprise or emergency scenarios, of course. But some two-thirds of these unassisted births were reported as “planned.” According to The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), approximately 35,000 births occur at home each year, and of those, approximately one-fourth are unplanned or unattended.
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Why does it take 9 months of pregnancy?

How Many Weeks Is A Pregnancy How much longer could Junior really stay in there? Olivier Lantzendorffer/iStockphoto.com hide caption toggle caption Olivier Lantzendorffer/iStockphoto.com How Many Weeks Is A Pregnancy How much longer could Junior really stay in there? Olivier Lantzendorffer/iStockphoto.com Babies are lovely but altogether helpless creatures. Wouldn’t it be better if tiny humans were born able to walk, like horses, or generally were readier for the rigors of the world, like, say, chimps? Among primates, human have the least developed brains at birth, at least when compared to adult human brains.

  • If humans were born as far along on cognitive and neurological scales as rough and ready chimps are, though, human pregnancy would have to last at least twice as long.
  • Eighteen months in the womb, anyone? The prevailing explanation for why pregnancy doesn’t last that long boils down to something called the “obstetrical dilemma.” Humans walk upright.

And the size and shape of our pelvises are constrained by our bipedal way of getting around in the world. If they got much bigger, mothers wouldn’t walk as well. So babies’ brains could only get so big and still fit through the birth canal, the conventional wisdom holds.

  1. Now researchers at the University of Rhode Island, Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, are questioning whether the theory is right.
  2. Instead of mechanical limits dictating how big a baby’s head can get, they propose it’s really about how much energy Mom can spare for the developing fetus.

“Mothers gestate a baby as long as they can metabolically,” Holly Dunsworth, an assistant professor of anthropology at University of Rhode Island, tells Shots. She’s the lead author of a paper advancing the metabolic hypothesis, an alternative explanation that’s laid out in a paper published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

  • She and her colleagues concluded that a human baby born at a chimp’s level of development would require the average human birth canal to be about 3 centimeters bigger, an increase of a little more than an inch in diameter.
  • That’s feasible, the researchers say.
  • We show that’s within the range of variation now,” Dunsworth says.

“Those people with wider birth canals aren’t walking any worse.” So what is the limiting factor? Apparently, it’s how much energy Mom can divert from her own metabolism to the growth and maintenance of a fetus, the researchers say. We humans are able to crank up our metabolism to about twice its normal level and sustain that turbo mode for quite a while.

In fact, pregnant women’s metabolism runs at twice the normal level by about the sixth month. By nine months, as the fetus’s energy needs increase, the rate is pushing close to 2.1 times normal. And that’s pretty much the limit. “Extending gestation even by a month would likely require metabolic investment beyond the mother’s capacity,” the researchers write.

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What happens instead? Mom gives birth, and baby’s growth rate slows (compared to its fetal self). Everybody’s happy, though it must be said that there’s a lot of coddling and many sleepless nights as the needy baby grows into a toddler. One paper isn’t likely to shove the obstetrical dilemma off the scientific stage overnight.
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Why does it take 9 months to have a baby?

How Many Weeks Is A Pregnancy Credit: Getty Images, iStockphoto, Thinkstock Sign up for Scientific American ’s free newsletters. ” data-newsletterpromo_article-image=”https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/4641809D-B8F1-41A3-9E5A87C21ADB2FD8_source.png” data-newsletterpromo_article-button-text=”Sign Up” data-newsletterpromo_article-button-link=”https://www.scientificamerican.com/page/newsletter-sign-up/?origincode=2018_sciam_ArticlePromo_NewsletterSignUp” name=”articleBody” itemprop=”articleBody”> Human babies enter the world utterly dependent on caregivers to tend to their every need. Although newborns of other primate species rely on caregivers, too, human infants are especially helpless because their brains are comparatively underdeveloped. Indeed, by one estimation a human fetus would have to undergo a gestation period of 18 to 21 months instead of the usual nine to be born at a neurological and cognitive development stage comparable to that of a chimpanzee newborn. Anthropologists have long thought that the size of the pelvis has limited human gestation length. New research may challenge that view. The traditional explanation for our nine-month gestation period and helpless newborns is that natural selection favored childbirth at an earlier stage of fetal development to accommodate selection for both large brain size and upright locomotion—defining characteristics of the human lineage. In this view, adaptations to bipedalism restricted the width of the birth canal and, hence, the size of the baby that can pass through it. Human babies are thus born when their brains are less than 30 percent of adult brain size so that they can fit through the narrow passageway. They then continue development outside of the womb, with brain size nearly doubling in the first year. But when Holly M. Dunsworth of the University of Rhode Island and her colleagues tested this so-called obstetrical dilemma hypothesis, their findings did not match its predictions. For example, the hypothesis predicts that because the female pelvis is broader than the male pelvis, walking and running should be more energetically demanding for women than for men. Yet most studies of the energetics and mechanics of locomotion in women and men found no such penalties for having a wider pelvis, the researchers report. Furthermore, the team asserts, to accommodate an infant at a chimplike stage of brain development—that is, a brain that is 40 percent of adult brain size, or 640 cubic centimeters—the pelvic inlet (the top of the birth canal, which is the narrowest part) would only have to expand by three centimeters on average. Some women today have pelvic inlets that wide, and those larger dimensions have no measurable effect on locomotor cost. The researchers argue that instead of fetal brain expansion being constrained by the dimensions of the pelvis, the dimensions of the human pelvis have evolved to accommodate babies, and some other factor has kept newborn size in check. That other factor, they contend, is mom’s metabolic rate. “Gestation places a heavy metabolic burden (measured in calories consumed) on the mother,” Dunsworth and her co-authors explain. Data from a wide range of mammals suggest that there is a limit to how large and energetically expensive a fetus can grow before it has to check out of the womb. Once outside of the womb, the baby’s growth slows down to a more sustainable rate for the mother. Building on an idea previously put forth by study co-author Peter T. Ellison of Harvard University known as the metabolic crossover hypothesis, the team proposes that “energetic constraints of both mother and fetus are the primary determinants of gestation length and fetal growth in humans and across mammals.” By nine months or so, the metabolic demands of a human fetus threaten to exceed the mother’s ability to meet both the baby’s energy requirements and her own, so she delivers the baby. In their report, to be published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Dunsworth and her collaborators conclude that “if the human reproductive system poses a dilemma between competing needs, then fetal energy needs and maternal energy supply are the competitors, rather than and bipedalism.” When I asked paleoanthropologist Karen Rosenberg of the University of Delaware, an expert on the evolution of human birth, what she thought about the new work, she called it “important and interesting.” But “just because there’s a metabolic moment when it becomes reasonable to have a baby doesn’t mean it isn’t also true that the pelvis is a tradeoff between giving birth and walking on two legs,” she contends. Given how difficult human birth is, one would think that if the pelvis could get bigger without compromising locomotion then it would-but it doesn’t, Rosenberg observes. “I think it’s still the case that the pelvis is adapted to functions that select in opposite directions,” she says. Rosenberg additionally noted—and I found this especially fascinating—that the authors mention the possibility that the timing of birth actually optimizes cognitive and motor neuronal development. That idea, first proposed by Swiss zoologist Adolf Portman in the 1960s, is worth pursuing, she says. “Maybe human newborns are adapted to soaking up all this cultural stuff and maybe being born earlier lets you do this,” she muses. “Maybe being born earlier is better if you’re a cultural animal.” Food for thought. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
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Why do some pregnancies last longer than 40 weeks?

The last few days of pregnancy are an exciting time. But when your due date has passed, waiting for labor to start can be stressful too. Many parents-to-be become anxious. If there are no specific problems, the baby is very probably doing fine, though. When a pregnancy continues its full normal course (about 40 weeks), it is called a term pregnancy or full-term pregnancy.

If a baby is born before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy, it is considered to be a preterm birth. Being born too early is associated with various risks for the baby. A pregnancy that continues for longer than 42 weeks is called a post-term, prolonged or overdue pregnancy. This definition may vary from country to country.

About 60 out of 100 women give birth on or before their given due date. In another 35 out of 100 women, contractions start on their own within two weeks of the due date. But it takes longer in about 5 out of 100 women. The reason why the baby is overdue is usually not known.
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Is 9 months pregnant normal?

9 Months Pregnant – Signs Of Labor & Baby Delivery – Pampers India Yes! You’re in your last month of pregnancy, and your baby could arrive at any time. Most women give birth between weeks 38 and 42, but very few babies arrive exactly on their due date.
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