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40 weeks pregnant, birth, full term pregnancy, Ina May Gaskin, labour, Pregnancy, pregnancy due dates
I have now reached 40 weeks pregnant. My due date has been and gone. There is still no baby and my bump is as huge as ever. But, despite all of this, I don’t consider myself “overdue”.
When I was pregnant with Frog I remember looking at her due date much as one would look at a deadline. To me, that date marked the end of my pregnancy and the beginning of motherhood. The idea that my baby may have other ideas didn’t even cross my mind.
In the end, my daughter came into the world twelve days after she was “due”. She was perfect, weighing only 6lb 14oz, with pink skin and a tiny smattering of hair. There was nothing about her to indicate she was twelve days “late”. Her skin wasn’t all wrinkled and she wasn’t scarily big. Looking back, I now know she simply wasn’t ready to be born at 40 weeks. Continue reading »