Why can’t some girls wait for a birthday?
By Danell Swim
February 25, 2008
What makes an apple fall from a tree? Newton knew the answer to that one - gravity - but even he would have had trouble predicting the exact date that a particular fruit would hit the ground.
The story of how a baby comes to be born is far more complex, and scientists admit that they do not yet understand what causes the onset of labour. Yet every pregnant woman leaves her first obstetric appointment with a “due date”.
For many women, particularly in first pregnancies, the date comes and goes with no sign of the stork, leading to an anxious waiting time. Standard practice is that between a week and two weeks after that, if the baby has not arrived, doctors will try to “induce” or bring on labour. Most waiting women are happy to allow this to happen and around a quarter of births are now “induced” for this and other reasons. But a few see it as an unnecessary interference and want to wait for a natural birth.
Jo Bisset’s son, Hector, arrived 16 days “late” after she deliberately missed hospital appointments because she did not want doctors to try to persuade her to be induced.
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