Why you shouldn't deliver before completing 40 weeks of pregnancy

A full term pregnancy is 40 weeks long, a baby born anytime before that is a premature baby.

A full-term pregnancy is considered to be 40 weeks long. Sometimes women deliver before time and there could be many reasons for the same fetal growth restriction, early rupture of the water bag, maternal health, etc. Your doctor would be the right person to decide if you need to deliver your baby before it is a term. However, many people deliberately choose to induce labour or go for an elective C-section and deliver once 36 weeks of pregnancy get over. There are many lame reasons people give for this decision an auspicious date; the entire family can be together and other such things. Well, the truth is delivering your baby before the term has its own set of complications. Here is all you need to know what happens when you are way past your due date.

The fetal lung maturity starts during the 37^th week and reaches completion only at 39^th week. Hence, a baby born at 36^th week is more likely to have immature lungs and, therefore, may need to be kept under observation in a NICU, says Dr Shantala Vadeyar, Medical Director of FetoMaternal Medicine, Cloudnine Hospital, Mumbai. Here is how you need to take care of your premature baby at home.

Pregnancy lasts for 280 days or 40 weeks and if you deliver your baby before that, it will be considered a preterm baby. Here is how your pregnancy will be termed depending on your delivery week:

• Babies born between 23rd to 28th weeks preterm baby
• Babies born between 29th to 33rd weeks moderately preterm
• Babies born between 34th to 37th weeks late preterm infants

So, babies born before the 37^th week of pregnancy might suffer from problems like breathing difficulties, unable to stay warm on their own, problems in developing a perfect latch during breastfeeding and much more. Also, preterm infants stand the risk of developing diabetes and other lifestyle related ailments in future. Therefore, it is better to wait for your term to get over before you deliver. However, there can be times an early delivery might be necessary, A delivery before term might be needed to be done if both the fetus and mother need it due to health or medical concern. Fetal or maternal complications such as fetal growth restriction, maternal diabetes, pre-eclampsia could be some of the reasons that can lead to early labour and delivery, says Dr Vadeyar. Apart from that choosing a date of delivery way before completing your 40 weeks of pregnancy isn t advisable.

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