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Should Doctors Do Away With
Delivery Dates?
In two stories reported by the November 20, 2001 Reuters Health service
and the December 2, 2001 ABC News Service the basic question is asked,
"With only 5 percent of babies arriving on time, should doctors do
away with the due date"? These stories reported on an article
that appeared in the December's Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
In that journal the author, Dr. Vern Katz, of the Center for Genetics and
Maternal Fetal Medicine in Oregon, says that 95 percent of women deliver
outside of their due date. He therefore argues for the removal of the term
and concept of a "due date."
In his article Dr. Katz maintains that the concept of a due date is
erroneous. He says it only leads expecting parents to feel
frustration and anxiety about the health of their baby if the mother
doesn't deliver "on time." He further says the
calculations used by practitioners to set the date are flawed.
"Predicting a due date based on the woman's last menstrual period is
simply not accurate", he says. "How often does conception occur
exactly 14 days to the minute after the last menstrual period?"
Dr. Benjamin Sachs, a Harvard professor and chairman of the
department of obstetrics and gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center in Boston prefers a different approach to predicting
deliveries, "An assigned week of delivery may allow women to be
calmer", he insists. Sachs also noted that rates of inducing
labor in the United Sates have "skyrocketed because of the due date
issue." Going to a "week of delivery" may even do
more good than just calming nerves, says Sachs. "It may allow biology
to take its course a bit more."
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