06/06/2023
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Our culture has really embraced the idea of due dates.
We accept that they are a โthingโ even though they are totally man made, as I discuss in my new book, In Your Own Time: how western medicine controls the start of labour and why this needs to stop.
We allow due dates to dictate many of our actions, thoughts, conventions and conversations around pregnancy.
But many women and families will tell you that they and everything that goes along with them can be a source of considerable stress.
Itโs really disheartening to know your due date but to have a professional (or, worse, a machine) insist on changing it.
Itโs immensely stressful to have to fight to not have an induction when you KNOW your baby isnโt ready to be born.
As I wrote in In Your Own Time:
โAssigning a due date, allowing a machine to change it and then using that date to determine the end point of pregnancy sends a very clear message.
It conveys the idea than medical science knows more about when a baby should be born than either the baby herself or the woman whose body has created, grown and nourished her baby.โ
But, when you look closely at what we know about the length of pregnancy, you find something rather curious.
You find that it isnโt based on good evidence.
In fact, you find โ as I have done over the two decades that I have been researching this area - that, โthe policy of induction at a certain point in pregnancy is largely based on fear, tradition, fashion and some outdated, misogynistic ideas rather than sound evidence.โ
If youโd like to know more, visit www.sarawickham.com/time
