True or false? First babies are normally late?

[lolly1988]

Is this true or false? Usually first babies are due late? And are boys usually lazier than girls for lateness?

DC1 girl 40 weeks
DC2 boy 38 weeks
So false on late
false on boys lazy

My mw told me 80% of first babies are late.

mine was 4 weeks early!

mind you i had pre-eclampsia so they kind of had to get her out

DS was born 40+1 (waters broke at 40!)

I asked my midwife this question and she said no. Really hoping mines not late.

I just read a book claiming that 5% of all babies are born on due date and from the rest, 30% come early, 70% late. I'm due this Friday but not getting my hopes up..

My DD was 2 days early, no early labour symptoms or braxton hicks either, I just woke up with cramps on the wednesday which never stopped so were the first contractions & she was born the following lunchtime.

Dd was 13 days late, ds 15 days. However, while dd was definitely fully cooked, I didn't feel that ds was (despite being 8.12). I might shift my edd 2 weeks later with this one to avoid the "haven't you had it yet?" comments.....

Generally yes.

But, dd1 was 3 days early, and dd2 was 3 days late. Most people I know their first one is late.

False - mine was a boy and was nearly three weeks early.

I believe more often than not it is true, but by no means always. Mine was 7 weeks early.

DS - on his due date

DD 41+3...which was massively frustrating at the time as I bought into the second babies come earlier thing as well and expected her to at least arrive by her due date, lol

Most babies are overdue - this is true. Midwives said that around 80% of all babies are born after EDD. In France, for this reason, the term is 41 weeks, not 40 (they still induce around 42 though).

That said, there are always exceptions. (eg seemingly everyone I've spoken to recently has told me how their first was early for various reasons, mainly, alarmingly spontaneous!)

However when you think that the methods of calculating the due date are so inexact, and that they've got not clue as to what kickstarts labour, it's not surprising that babies don't tend to conform with 'the rules'.

DS was 11 days late; took 3 sweeps and an induction to bring him into the world!

First baby, boy and currently 40+2 and counting.

DS was exactly 2 weeks early.

DD was two weeks early but had to be induced because my waters went. I was convinced she'd be late and so the nursery wasn't exactly ready.

dd1 10 days early and dd2 4 days late