Pregnancy is most stressful at the beginning and at the end. First you try to conceive, and spend half of each month superimposed between two very different realities. Then there's morning sickness, and you worry about miscarriage, which is far more likely early on.

Near the end, you can be pretty confident you’re having a baby. But there's a wide range of when exactly that baby might come. Very early, and you’re looking at a long stay in the NICU, and maybe more problems later on. Very late, and you have to be medically induced for the health of both baby and mother, which is correlated with protracted labor.

Everyone agrees that pre-32 weeks is really bad, pre-37 weeks is pretty bad, and post-42 weeks is dangerous. In this post, though, I’ll focus on the sweet spot: the 37-41 week range. If you have a baby in this range [...]

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Outline:

(01:16) The Inner Bullseye

(02:45) What's In A Week?

(03:52) Study Dive: Gestational age at birth, chronic conditions and school outcomes: a population-based data linkage study of children born in England

(06:06) What about other studies?

(07:37) Any Countervailing Evidence?

(09:14) Why Does This Matter?

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 21st, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Kh6vD5xEHGSNPMwSu/slightly-more-than-you-wanted-to-know-pregnancy-length

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Slightly More Than You Wanted To Know: Pregnancy Length Effects” by JustisMills

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Slightly More Than You Wanted To Know: Pregnancy Length Effects” by JustisMills