the due date statistics page hits 1000
So it's a little accomplishment, one I chipped away at, but I thought it was worth noting: my due date survey hit 1000 entries this week.
1011, actually!
A lot of the entries came in batches of 30-50, I'd post about it in due date communities when the applicable babies were about two months old.
Results? Still pretty boring, but I keep coming up with fun facts:
The most recent chart I added was a sort of "are you normal?" chart... you can put in any day and it'll tell you how many women are still pregnant, and when they have their babies.
I think it tells an interesting story, because toward the 36-37 week mark you start getting REALLY PREGNANT, and friends and family start telling you you're so huge surely you'll go any minute! But statistics say that very few women who are 37 weeks pregnant go any minute... 80% of them still have over two weeks to go.
On the other hand, once you go past your "due date" people start to sort of give up and just figure you'll be pregnant forever, or at least that's the gist I get from reading communities. Sometimes doctors even want to schedule inductions. But in reality, you're about to go any minute. You're at the top of the curve, or the middle of the likely days, you just have to ride it out. If you're 3 days past your due date, which happens to over 1/3 of pregnancies, you have a 40% chance of going into labor within the next four days. Those are good odds, taken out of all pregnancies including inductions. I don't think the world really gets that.
So anyway, that's the story I'm trying to tell with my charts. They get visited a lot... one forum referred to my findings as "the spacefem distribution". I feel like I'm helping people. And yes, I do point to medical studies now that back me up, and they found similar data. But if you're a pregnant nerd who wants to pour over numbers like a crazy woman, I feel like I've set something really good up. I'm proud of myself.
1011, actually!
A lot of the entries came in batches of 30-50, I'd post about it in due date communities when the applicable babies were about two months old.
Results? Still pretty boring, but I keep coming up with fun facts:
- 60% of babies come within a week of their due date.
- For full-term pregnancies (37-43 weeks) the median length is 40 weeks, 0 days
- First time moms don't always go later. In fact the data so far shows them going two days earlier.
- Babies are no more likely to show up during a full moon.
- 41W 6D is the first date where more babies are born after induced labor. By this time, only 5% of births remain anyway. Based on the math if my doctor was wanting to schedule an induction and I seemed otherwise healthy, I'd ask for 41W 6D!
The most recent chart I added was a sort of "are you normal?" chart... you can put in any day and it'll tell you how many women are still pregnant, and when they have their babies.
I think it tells an interesting story, because toward the 36-37 week mark you start getting REALLY PREGNANT, and friends and family start telling you you're so huge surely you'll go any minute! But statistics say that very few women who are 37 weeks pregnant go any minute... 80% of them still have over two weeks to go.
On the other hand, once you go past your "due date" people start to sort of give up and just figure you'll be pregnant forever, or at least that's the gist I get from reading communities. Sometimes doctors even want to schedule inductions. But in reality, you're about to go any minute. You're at the top of the curve, or the middle of the likely days, you just have to ride it out. If you're 3 days past your due date, which happens to over 1/3 of pregnancies, you have a 40% chance of going into labor within the next four days. Those are good odds, taken out of all pregnancies including inductions. I don't think the world really gets that.
So anyway, that's the story I'm trying to tell with my charts. They get visited a lot... one forum referred to my findings as "the spacefem distribution". I feel like I'm helping people. And yes, I do point to medical studies now that back me up, and they found similar data. But if you're a pregnant nerd who wants to pour over numbers like a crazy woman, I feel like I've set something really good up. I'm proud of myself.