Baby Picks Own Day of Birth

One of the biggest obstacles to natural birth is misunderstanding your "due date." A due date does not mean there is only one safe day for your baby to be born. It is meant to establish a range of time that your baby is mature and safe to be born. Because modern obstetrics narrows this to a specific day, unnecessary interventions, like inducing labor, come into practice.

In a well-nourished, low risk pregnancy it is normal for your baby to be born between 37 and 42 weeks gestation*. Many natural events take place within your body during the last weeks of pregnancy to prepare you for labor. Allow time for the natural process to occur.

Use this due date calculator, if you please:
http://www.mothersnaturally.org/naturalPregnancy/dueDateCalculator.php
Kelly K, CD (CBI)

Early Labor Mistakes

Here are some common mistakes made in "EARLY LABOR" of a pregnant woman. This is referring to when it is safe for the mother to deliver:

• Paying attention too soon.
• Not sleeping
• Not eating
• Stopping regular activity
• Going to the hospital too soon

One of the hardest lessons for first time mothers to learn is that you should really try to ignore your contractions until they demand your attention. It seems one of the most common mistakes women make is to pay attention to labor too soon. If you cannot ignore them, then it is time to pay attention, I assume.

Due Dates "Estimated" Ones, That Is...

After reading a blog post by DoulaMomma, I was inspired to once again, post on what having an "estimated" due date really means... it should be Due MONTH, note single out a DAY on the calendar. It is too stressful!

You're more likely to have your first baby at around 41 weeks (and a day, to be precise).

But almost everyone thinks their baby will be "early"... due to the fact that they feel they may burst!

Obviously some of them will be early, and about 5% will be right on time, as 2/3 of my children were, and many are "late".

But the whole idea of estimated due dates is that they are an "ESTIMATE"...

seeing as e.d.d.'s were not so focused on in earlier times... it was just that, truly an "estimate".

I think our minds and our connections to our babies are powerful -

So if you are waiting on your baby, have a talk with them.

Also, what was your cycle like when you got pregnant?

If it was longer, eg. 33 days, then your date might be off - that dial-a-baby chart is based on 28 days, getting pregnant on day 14. Same deal for shorter cycles - maybe you're a little more pregnant than your date indicates and you'll be "early". Either way, no one has been pregnant forever - your baby will come. - (DoulaMomma quotes)