Thirty Seven Weeks and Beyond Maternal and Foetal Outcome by Week of Gestation

Abstract

BACKGROUNDIt was noted in 1951 that although pregnancies persisting beyond 300 days occurred less than 5% of the time, they accounted for 30% of perinatal deaths. In the most recent Technical Bulletin on post-term pregnancy, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists reiterated the threshold of 42 weeks of gestation as the definition of post-term pregnancy. Their continued use of 42 weeks is particularly surprising in the face of an abundance of research demonstrating that induction of labour at 41 weeks of gestation and beyond leads to lower rates of neonatal morbidity and lower rates of caesarean deliveries. Our study is to find out the prevalence of spontaneous onset of labour and prevalence of maternal and perinatal morbidity beyond 37 weeks of gestation up to 41 weeks.