When will the baby be born? a new test to predict it with more certainty

When will the baby be born? It’s a question that becomes more and more insistent as your belly grows so much that towards the last weeks of pregnancy you would literally want to glare at anyone who addresses this request for information. The fateful ” how much longer ?” you will deeply hate it. I assure you 🙂

Don’t worry we’ve all been there!

As you know, the date of delivery has a purely indicative value , but having a reference in the head helps. We all counted down because we couldn’t wait to hug our son but also finally to be able to go back to sleep on his stomach, eat a nice sandwich with bresaola or finally walk again without looking like a duck.

Calculating the due date is one of the first things we do after discovering the pregnancy, there’s no point in hiding it!

However, only about 5% of women give birth exactly on the calculated date.

So wouldn’t it be nice to have a simple test available that can predict when the birth will actually take place?

The diagnostic test to predict the date of delivery

According to a study published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, measuring the cervix via transvaginal ultrasound can reveal whether the pregnant woman is likely to go into labor within the next week.

According to one of the study’s authors, Dr. Vincenzo Berghella, the scan is completely safe.

Currently, doctors usually perform manual and, let’s face it, not very nice checkups to determine the length and softness of the cervix, indicators that can predict an impending delivery. But, as Dr. Berghella explains, the initiation of changes in the cervix happens on the inside, not the outside. An ultrasound examines the entire cervical structure, and is able to detect more accurately if the baby is about to be born.

The study included 735 pregnant women. Fewer than half of the women whose cervixes measured more than 3 cm gave birth within a week. When the cervix was less than 1cm long, 85 percent gave birth within a week .

This test has big implications. Of course, if the pregnancy is not yet complete, it helps doctors to take countermeasures to prolong the baby’s stay in the uterus. In the event of a full-term pregnancy, it helps the mother prepare psychologically.

The last weeks or days of pregnancy can be very heavy. in general it is known that one could give birth from two weeks before to two weeks after the presumed date of birth and this uncertainty is often a source of anxiety. This test allows you to have slightly more precise references even if in the end, when the pregnancy is at term, labor starts a little when it wants 😉

See also: the stages of labor