Why are babies overdue sometimes?

[lozzenge]

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becuase the due date's only an estimate

I have 2 dc. Both were well overude. I beleive some people just cook them for a bit longer

Both were 10 days over due date. I belive it may be someting to do with your menstral cycle and the length of that.

both mine were ten days overdue too, both boys, could be to do with where conception is on your cycle??...although no2 was induced and arrived on the 10th day over

ds was 15 days late and finally induced, I swear it was because my therapist gave me oil to rub into my belly every night during pregnancy and I think he loved it so much he didnt want to come out

Mine were both boys aswell - both bloody too comfy inside - the sign of things to come !

Because some take longer to do?
All 9 of mine were overdue. My earliest was just 2 days late. What a surprise that was. 2 of them had to be forcefully evicted (induced)

Yep, CaptainUnderpants has it right, I reckon. I like to think my DC were 11 and 13 days late because I'm so very comfortable. I've been oh-so-charmingly told I'm 'built for comfort not speed' before by DP's family

Your due date is an estimate based on an average pregnancy being 280 days from the first day of the last period. This assumes that you ovulated on day 14, but many women ovulate later in their cycle than this. There also seems to be a difference in the average length of pregnancy between different racial groups.

Some babies also just take longer to be ready to be born than others. Nobody knows exactly what triggers labour, but it is thought that when the baby's lungs are fully mature a chemical is produced which triggers labour.

A due date is really a fabrication. No other species focusses on a specific date on which they believe their offspring will be born and no other species has offspring which are "overdue"

Unless you're talking weeks and weeks. clearly something is wrong then. In the same way as anything after 37 weeks or so is deemed to be "at term".